Worst Case Scenario
by Author00
Summary: In a last desperate gambit, one Naruto isn't even sure he'll survive, Madara is defeated. Yet as Naruto plans to rebuild with the aid of his last living friend Gaara, a strange pair arrive to offer him a chance to live again, and avert the victory he never wanted. AU
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

The Enactment of the Final Plan

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki looked at the nineteen ninja arranged in front of him. They were covered from head to toe in blood, red splatters belonging to the humans that now fought for Obito, with Zetsu long since destroyed, though not in time to make a difference. They each possessed their own wounds, some on their limbs, some on their torsos. One of them in particular, one of the last three living Hyuga, was missing their right eye. They were ragged, exhausted, and not really physically fit for combat by any medic's definition.

But any of history's Kage would be hesitant about fighting any of those in front of him should they see the fire that burned in their eyes, the intense flame of grim determination that told the world that they would run towards death and laugh at the fear of those they took with them. They burned with not only an intense hatred of those that had driven them to this state of mind, but the love and trust for each other that only the soldiers who fought side-by-side could feel.

And to Naruto, they were the best goddamn people he could die by. They were his sensei, Kakashi Hatake. His old classmates Ino Yamanaka, Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame. The former Kumo ninja Darui and Karui. The Green Beast Rock Lee, and his lover Tenten Higurashi. Gaara, the Kazekage of a village that was no more. The Hyuga without his left eye, Ko. The now-deadliest swordsman of the group and possibly in the world, Chojuro, wielder of not only Hiramekarei, but also Kubikiribocho and a single one of the pair of Kibas. The somehow still soft-hearted Academy Instructor Iruka. The ANBU Lizard, Hawk, and Wolf, also known as Manabu Iwate, Mamoru Iwate and Takenshi Oita. The mother who had outlived her son and her love, Kurenai Yuhi. Konohamaru Sarutobi, the last of his clan. Raiden Kyoto, the most powerful raiton specialist alive, ironically hailing from Iwa.

With him, they were twenty, the last twenty to oppose Obito Uchiha. And they would make their last stand here, in the ashes and ruins of Konoha, against an army that numbered ten-thousand strong. The opposing army stared them down from across the field, and while there was steel in their eyes, there was also fear for the group that had killed over a twenty thousand people, not counting the Zetsu clones they had defeated. Sure, a fourth of those kills were owed to Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, the last Hokage, named Rokudaime a little over a month before the village was destroyed, but it was still a horrifying thought.

Not only that, but there was the simple truth that while those in the larger army fought because they would be destroyed by Obito otherwise, those of the small force fought for each other and their world's future, giving them truer strength. All fighting for the Uchiha's Curse of Hatred agreed that no sane man would do what they were about to, fighting the force on the other side of the field. But at least this way they had a chance of life.

But Naruto did not look at those ready to kill him. Rather, he looked at those he loved and said, "Shinobi!" They all gave him their ears, grinning and knowing that a speech from him would help inspire them to continue fighting to their last breath. Shikamaru may have been able to come up with a better plan back in the better days, but Naruto could make ninja follow him with a dumb one due to his sheer charisma, said charisma stemming from his progressively greater similarity to his father as he grew older and his ability to hold a presence that oozed hope and confidence

"We have fought over these past four years since the declaration of war from this world's scourge, Madara and Obito Uchiha!" Naruto shouted, and there were nods and murmurs of agreement. "We have all lost most of, if not all of, what we loved. Our family. Our comrades. Our senseis. Our homes." He said the last word quietly, gesturing to the ruins of Konoha around him. "And today, I'm not gonna lie, we'll probably lose our lives." There were grim looks at that. "But we'll be taking those two bastards down with us, so it'll be a pretty good death, eh?"

There were shouts of agreement, and a particularly enthusiastic "Yosh!" from Lee.

Naruto continued. "But as good as words are, let's get down to the logistics. There are about ten thousand of them, twenty of us. So if we all kill five hundred each, then they're gone, right?" The entire group continued staring. "Hey, I'm seriously asking here. We all know math isn't my forte." There were a few weak chuckles at this, and everyone did nod or give an affirmative. "Well then, no point in beating around the bush. You all know the plan. Kill all you can before you get killed yourself. For all we've lost, eh?" He raised his arm. "Hoo-ah?"

"Hoo-ah!" The group responded, grim smiles on all their faces. And they charged towards certain death.

Kiba was the first to die. He knocked a sword away from Hinata's direction, though the girl probably could have blocked it or avoided it herself. It gave the opening for an enemy to stab at him, and he took a kunai to his right eye. He fell over, dead. The dog boy's killer fell not a second later, a Jyuken strike stopping his heart. It was probably for the best, Naruto mused, as he drove a rasengan into the face of a man smelling of alcohol and cheese. The Inuzuka had always been longing for death since his partner had fallen. Now he could be with Akamaru.

You could tell that for a second, the army assembled before the small force thought they would have a reprieve, that the fall of one of the last of the resistance would mean an easier time of things. However, that hope quickly left them as they started falling in greater numbers, mainly to the three living members of Team Kurenai. They were both pissed at the fall of their teammate, and their loss of the status as only complete former genin team from the pre-war period. Human members, at least.

Mamoru fell next, taking a fire jutsu for his younger brother and being true to his name 'Protector'. The fire jutsu was not what killed him, but his wild jump to send a water technique at the fireball aimed for his sibling's back. He had extinguished the attack, but his hard and disorienting landing on his shoulder was taken advantage of. He was stabbed relentlessly by two chunin with kunai before he could recover. To the former ANBU's credit, he managed to punch one of the men hard enough in the knee to break it before he went into shock and died.

Shino was third. He did not die in a noble end like the two before him, but was rather cut down by three soldier's working in tandem to overwhelm him with hand-to-hand combat. Many had tried to get him to correct his sloppy habit of not putting the work he should've into taijutsu, but he had reasoned he had no plans to survive the war. Now it caught up to him.

And on and on people died before Naruto as he kept on fighting hardest of all of them. He watched as Kurenai was buried to her neck and stomped in the face three quick times, the last snapping her neck. The blond could have sworn she had died smiling, but he hadn't been able to divert enough concentration to get a good look. Perhaps the woman had been happy to once again be reunited with her family. Then Ino was cleanly decapitated by a particularly skilled swordsman, who was in turn killed by Iruka. Iruka went to a windmill shuriken to the back, much like he had taken years ago. The dark humor of it nearly made Naruto smile. Or perhaps it was using wind to decapitate the man who had thrown it.

By that point there were five-thousand dead, and Naruto was quite proud to claim around five hundred lives. He had become ridiculously overpowered when he had learned his mastered his father's technique, along with fuinjutsu, his mother's chains, and other skills. Had he been able to prepare the battlefield more, he would have a thousand more kills, but as it was the small crowd of fighters had barely had enough time to prepare it as they needed to. The Hokage was barely as strong as Obito without his Sharingan abilities, and he had been nowhere near strong enough to defeat Madara when the man had finally fallen to almost every good ninja left in the world, but fodder like this was easy.

And yet despite the greatest losses the group had faced in a long time, they knew there would be more to come, so they continued fighting. Darui fell next, his chakra eaten up from using his storm element from the beginning. He was hit with a hard kick the moment he began to falter, and he was soon overwhelmed, his exhaustion leaving him unable to put up a good fight. Karui's temper got the better of her after that, and she got sloppy, falling quickly to a sword strike she would have blocked in a clearer state of mind. The blond Hokage was pissed at both her and Obito for that, and he took it out by using his specially-made dueling kunai, much like Kakashi's, to horribly disfigure the nearest enemy.

Then Tenten went, being an idiot like Kiba and defending Hinata when she didn't need it. She took time she didn't have to deliver a kunai to the eye of a ninja who had been preforming hand signs in preparation for a jutsu aimed at the girl, and this gave the opening for a slash to the back. The shock of the wound provided the opportunity needed to kill the weapon's mistress by two ninja. Lee went nuts in response, the green beast just not caring at the point when he saw the only thing left in the world he loved fall. He activated the last of the gates and moved faster than Naruto could with the Harashin for four minutes. Naruto marveled, as did many, as how he must have killed twice his quota before his time was up and his heart, along with other internal organs, exploded, and his horrendously overworked muscles atrophied and unraveled before their eyes.

The Ko went, simply being overwhelmed by ten men attacking him at once. The piled on the one time protector of Hinata and stabbed wildly with kunai, swords, and one spear. They all died by Hinata's hand then, rage fueling her. She flowed through them and hit, stabbed, or just punched them hard enough to knock them down, where they were trampled by the mass of feet attempting to kill the last nine enemies.

Then it was Takenshi and Raiden's turns, both taken down in the same conjunction fire-wind technique. While either would have normally been able to avoid or counter the attack in better circumstances, they were both exhausted. Those responsible were easily cut down by a sand attack from Gaara, who had not moved from his one spot since the beginning of the battle.

Next, unfortunately, came Chojuro. Hiramekarei and the Kiba had long since been broken or discarded, while Kubikiribocho had been broken seven times, yet was continuously reformed. It came the time that the blade broke and Chojuro was surrounded enough to end up dead. He made the motion to stab at one of the enemy with the nub that was all that was left of his blade, yet a man to his side was faster, and with a spurt of blood, a kunai went in one side of the swordsman's head and left the other. He died without a sound.

Konohamaru, much to Naruto's rage, went next to a mistake. He overextended himself on a rasengan, and while he killed his target, his legs were swept out from under him before the Sarutobi could right himself. He hit the ground hard, and while he thrashed and looked like he would survive, the youngest member of the group was killed by a lucky shot to the chest, a hard stomp. That knocked the breath out of his lungs and gave the opening for the sword that followed.

Naruto's vision went red after that, in the Kyubi sense and the pissed sense. He had seen people die before, comrades, but Konohamaru was his student. His fury at the kid's death saw him ripping through the crowd, fighting with his kunai, his original jutsu, his claws, and his rasengan. He continued ripping through the crowd with renewed vigor when he realized how much they were thinning.

Of course, by this point, there were two or three dozen enemy left, and the entire time, the bastard they were fighting had not moved from his space a few hundred feet away. He was just watching, and that threw Naruto even further into a red rage. That the bastard had the nerve to just stand there and watch impassively as Naruto and his team put enough blood on their hands to ensure a long enough stint in hell by some interpretations.

Finally, Naruto reached Hinata. She was covered in blood, looked exhausted, and had killed around six-hundred men. But damn did she look good to him. She weaved in and out of men and women, continuously hitting them with jyuken strikes and killing them. Naruto stabbed a few more men on his way to her, and once he reached the girl, they started moving in perfect tandem.

Ducking and weaving and flipping around each other. Moving in response to each other and not at their own instincts. This bond of trust had been forged from years of surviving together, years of comforting each other as they experienced the worst life had to offer. Soon, finally, they were both thanking Kami, there were nothing but bodies, Kakashi, and Gaara around them. Them, and that bastard.

"We're almost through." Gaara said, smiling slightly. He sand swirled around him. "Any tactical updates, Naruto?"

"I think we should know that before we charge." Kakashi said as well with some dry humor, his flak jacket discarded and his shirt torn in so many places it barely counted as a shirt. His once pale skin was covered in burns and scraps, his mask somehow being the only article of his clothing to survive intact. It was expected that he'd look worse for wear; out of all of the survivors, he was the weakest.

Naruto sighed. "Beat the living shit out of the bastard with our tactics that HOPEFULLY work until he's in a good position for me to pull my suicide technique." Said bastard had not moved yet, and was simply staring at them. Naruto thought of the story of the battle of the Kage and what Madara was reported to have said, right before he murdered all the village leaders. He had said, why should an adult fight seriously against children, or something along those lines. That was how it had been, long ago, back before the power of Kurama became his and his alone. He sometimes missed the fox, and felt a little guilt, but he couldn't have done anything for the demon's consciousness. And even then, it had taken everything the Elemental Nations had had to take the man down.

"As good a plan as we have." Hinata said tiredly. Naruto felt a stab of sadness, realizing how tired the woman he loved was. Perhaps it was better that she would die now, despite that the thought made him want to vomit. The caring girl she was was buried deep down, if not dead, and in her place was a shell that fought for vengeance and out of her love for Naruto. So he was glad she would finally get true rest. They all would, after today.

Naruto channeled the potent chakra of the fox, and it flared in a column around him as he entered his "Nine-Tails Mode", shooting twenty feet into the sky. Gaara's sand all left his gourd. Hinata slipped into her Jyuken stance and activated Gentle Step: Twin Lion Fist. Kakashi sighed and looked at his old friend one last time, readying himself to kill the teammate he had once thought dead. Obito simply stood there, as they all charged.

The battle with Obito ended up being longer than the one with ten-thousand fucking lower-genin to lower-jonin ranked shinobi. Well, probably not, but it sure as hell felt that way.

The original meeting had been between the two deadly men were a massive taijutsu exchange. Even with Naruto's immense speed and unpredictability, he could not gain the upper hand, for he was unable to think up any strategy, simply reacting on instinct in order to stay alive. He kneed and punched and kicked and spit, yet the blond was unable to get the better of the Uchiha, even when Hinata, Kakashi, and Gaara, who had picked up some taijutsu over the years he used in corrugation with his sand, joined in the mix. He would just phase in and out of the attacks when they connected, and sometimes landing some of his own hits.

Fortunately, they had a plan to counteract this ability of the bastard's, and that was Kakashi's eye. The two looked at each other before the cyclops summoned his Kamui and jumped into the portal, teleporting himself into the other dimension that Obito banished his body parts to in order to avoid damage, Gaara following close after. Naruto knew that one of the four survivors would not survive this maneuver to disable the last Uchiha's Sharingan, and it pained him.

But what pained him most was he knew who it would be.

Kakashi stood in the other dimension with Gaara, still in a ready stance despite heavy exhaustion from the intense fighting he had just gone through. The younger man next to him seemed far less tired, though the fact that the sand shield he held over his body stopped any signs of fatigue from showing regardless. The redhead was probably as tired as the cyclops.

The man looked around the place, knowing it like the back of his hand from countless hours of training to use his eye like Obito did. It was basically thousands and thousands of raised platforms, all stopping their ascent at various levels. They were iridescent, with a slightly bluish tint that stood out against the midnight background of the rest of this Sharingan place, no end to it in sight. He quickly activated the other jutsu integral to the tactic.

"You ready?" The tired jonin asked his ally, his tone leaking the lack of a will to live he held in his soul. Of course, in his defense, nearly everything he cared about was gone, except for that one thing he loved that had destroyed the other things he cared for. He understood Obito's reasoning, but the damned man refused to listen to Kakashi in regards to the wrongness of his actions. Even though he accepted that Rin's death had been inevitable, the arrogant fool refused to believe that there were other options available to stop that sort of pointless death from ever again happening...

"I see." Kakashi heard from directly behind him. The white-haired man turned around and saw that his former best friend was standing three platforms across, looking impassive as usual, his massive amount of scarring disfiguring what had once been a handsome face. "You learn how to enter here yourself after unlocking the Eternal Mangekyo by taking one of Sasuke's eyes, and now you are using it to attack me from two fronts. But it would have made more sense to bring one of the stronger of you here, instead of the weakest and second best."

The scarecrow chuckled lightly, showing more happiness than he felt. "You can't stay there forever. You can only stay here so long before you lose your eye, whereas we-"

"-can stay here as long as you need to, seeing as you truly teleported here instead on becoming intangible, as I do. This exactly the kind of stupid strategy I'd expect from you without that troublesome Nara."

Kakashi could have laughed at the irony of that statement, but he didn't get the chance before a kunai appeared in the back of his head. Then Obito left a shocked-looking Gaara in the dimension, no way to exit.

The blond Hokage looked intensely at his opponent when the man once more became a solid object in this dimension, practically feeling Hinata tense up beside him. Then the man crushed both their hopes with a few words.

"Kakashi is dead, and you will never see the former One-Tail again." The Uchiha said impassively.

Both looked incredibly crestfallen and depressed, doing exactly what they wanted to and lulling Obito into a false sense of security. "It... Didn't work..." Naruto said, staring wide-eyed at his enemy. He heard Hinata fall to her knees beside them.

"Of course not." Obito responded, hints of arrogance and annoyance entering his voice. "I honestly expected better from you."

The Jinchuriki continued staring for another second before snapping out of it and snarling, "Damn you!" Red chakra leaked from his system, as it tended to when he was enraged, the demonic chakra incensed to the surface by negative emotions. "We'll think of something else! There's no way we'll lose to you, you son of a bitch!"

He heard Hinata tense up once again and stand. "He's right!" She exclaimed. "I refuse to surrender!" The two then charged at the slightly amused Obito, so assured in his ability to defeat the two by their original desolation at the knowledge that their plan of a double pronged attack had failed that he now considered this more a game. The man easily engaged them in taijutsu, feeling rejuvenated while the other two's attacks were sluggish and sloppy.

The last Sharingan wielder easily knocked Naruto away, sending the man tumbling into a nearby burnt-out building that had once been an apartment complex. He turned toward Hinata, and was promptly surprised by the fact that she began fighting as if she were fresh. She hit three tenketsu before he adjusted to her increase in skill, and immediately smelled a fish. The three fought for about twelve more seconds, then that fish grew stinkier when the girl grabbed him in a bear hug.

"What are you up to?" Obito demanded, pulling out a kunai knife and stabbing the girl hard in the back. She groaned in pain, and then smiled, making a hand seal behind his back. At the same time, the last Uchiha noticed a flash from where he had knocked Naruto.

"I'm surprised," Hinata coughed out at the surprised man, "that you didn't pay attention to the fact that I was wearing Naruto's coat." And then, over two thousand incredibly powerful explosives detonated around the two, each meant for heavy demolition. The resulting blast was equal to the one that had cost the Uchiha his left Sharingan years ago.

Naruto felt a stab of pain as he saw the explosion from miles away, having grabbed Gaara and Kakashi as they exited the other dimension and teleported a half mile south, nearer to what was once the Forest of Death. Powerful winds blew past them carrying heavy debris, all of which impacted a sand shield that Gaara had hastily erected The jinchuriki was disgusted that he had to allow the only woman he could have ever come to love sacrifice herself, but it was the only option. The group had gone through order of importance to decide who would blow the seals and make that sacrifice. Hinata had been the fourth to last on the list, Gaara third, Kakashi had been second, and Naruto at the bottom in the order of people who would pull that suicide move. As the explosion continued for a good six minutes, the three regrouped.

Naruto focused on the situation at hand when he felt Gaara's hand on his shoulder. He saw the sadness in his friend's eyes, too. "Do you think it was successful, Naruto?" The redhead asked.

Naruto smiled weakly. "If it was, the guy is lacking one Sharingan eye. Oh, and he's as good as dead."

"Thank Kami I managed to pull off those blood clones." Kakashi said from behind the two, somehow managing to look even paler due to the fact that he had cut his palm to summon enough blood to preform one of Naruto's original techniques.

The blond had made the technique after he had decided having a more durable clone would be helpful. After large amounts of brainstorming, the unpredictable ninja had capitalized on the fast rate at which he replenished blood and had made the blood clone. At the tradeoff that they were about as capable of anything involving heavy chakra use as Rock Lee, they were more durable than most normal ninja and were almost indistinguishable from their creator. Of course, even Naruto could only make one or two at once before suffering some negative effects from blood loss, so it was horribly impractical but still useful, especially when you had to fool an insane man into thinking he had killed his one-time teammate in order to trick him into thinking he had the upper hand and providing the opening for a suicide bombing.

Gaara smiled slightly. Then the Kazekage frowned. "He should be here by now."

Then the Uchiha appeared behind the group and stabbed Kakashi in the back of his head, killing the Copy-Cat for real. Both turned around, and Gaara received another blade to his face. Obito's Sharingan eye was covered by his eyelid, blood trickling from the corner of the eye. The man looked incredibly enraged, likely at both Naruto for orchestrating the plan that put him at a severe disadvantage, and at himself for really believing that he had gained the upper hand.

_'I've become more and more arrogant as time goes on.' _The man thought angrily. His anger spiked even further when the Gaara he had just stabbed dissolved into sand.

Naruto's eyes sparked in anger at the death of his sensei. "You'll pay for that, asshole." He barked before flashing away. Obito cursed in anger, and then turned around at the sound of footsteps.

"I believe we have some business to take care of." Gaara said, walking from the foliage, his sand swirling around him.

The blond Hokage sat cross-legged and began running through hand seals, knowing what he was doing would guarantee his death, if not the loss of his soul. As terrifying an idea as that was, Naruto was more than willing to sacrifice both in the effort to defeat Obito once and for all, and allow what was left of the world to rebuild. He quickly activated the first seven gates with one massive push of chakra, immediately entering a world of immense pain but gaining the chakra he needed to be able to perform his final technique. Then, in what was a last ditch effort to preserve his soul, he activated the final gate, feeling his chakra multiply exponentially. The fact that he was controlling the fox's chakra at the moment, therefore letting it be multiplied, gave him more chakra than the Jubi.

Waves of pure energy left the man, and judging by exactly how much power was releasing at the moment, he could have killed Madara, were he able to move without exploding. Of course, the resulting explosion would have also probably killed the former Uchiha clan head, so it was a moot point. The blond had about ten minutes to live if he kept this chakra in his system for much longer; he already knew he would have to go through a long recovery period and a lot of physical therapy if he ever wanted to be able to fight like a Kage again.

Naruto finished his string of handseals and shouted "Shiki Fujin!" just as the last of the Uchiha appeared in front of Naruto, holding Gaara by the nape of his neck. Naruto didn't know if the redhead was alive or not. "What are you doing, you stupid child!" Obito roared.

"Damning you!" Naruto shouted back defiantly. This opportunity of fighting an Obito weakened enough to not overpower Naruto or escape the jutsu had cost too much to screw up now.

Then the Shinigami appeared behind the blond Jinchuriki, and he looked incredibly pissed. **"Ah, yes."**The Death God said eerily. This made Naruto shiver, and he was fairly sure that his mortal enemy felt the same. **"The one jinchuriki who is able to use the Shiki Fuin, only because with you I will only have to seal that chakra of the fox and not the creature's consciousness. What do you wish to seal?"**

Naruto blinked, getting out of the stunned state the death god had put him in, which was a reasonable shock considering. "Obito Uchiha." He said solemnly. As he said it, the Uchiha's soul was dragged out of his body, though it was done grudgingly. The last Uchiha stared, a horrified look making his scared face even more hideous, as the ghost-like thing left his body.

The god turned and devoured the man's soul, ending his threat as his body collapsed to the ground. He then turned to Naruto. **"Pay tribute." **It said simply.

Naruto felt his chakra coils being torn to all hell, and quickly said, "I have an offer for you, death god!"

The demon stopped what he was doing, which was getting ready to eat the Uzumaki's soul, and looked curiously at what was supposed to be his next meal. **"The terms of the contract you signed by enacting this jutsu was clear; your soul."**

"Yeah," Naruto groaned, "but in case you didn't notice, I'm holding a lot of chakra right now. If you eat my soul, all that energy will just dissipate in a big explosion. Be a real waste."

The god's face had not moved once since the summoning, but its dark tones still said, **"I'm listening."**

"I know enough about you gods to know you can't take this energy without my consent, considering that I have the equivalent power of a minor god right now and the other gods would get pissy if you suddenly gained all that strength by force. But if I give it to you, in exchange for sparing me, you get a shitload of energy and I'll get to live to help rebuild. What do you say?" Naruto said through gritted teeth, in more pain than he had ever been before.

The god left the blond in suspense for a few more seconds before he finally said, **"That is a fair trade, and one I will accept." **With a slice of the Shinigami's sword, nearly all of Naruto's chakra left his system, and he collapsed to the ground, exhausted. **"Live well, Uzumaki... You don't get two chances."**

The immortal known as Scar, a tall, impeccably dressed skinny man with hair similar to Danzo, battle scars crossing his body, stared at his monitors. Then he looked at his brother Cult, a shorter man with shoulder-length black hair and a five o'clock shadow, wearing a blue sleeveless shirt under an olive sleeveless shirt under a bandoleer, along with blue pants and combat boots. Then he looked back at his monitors. They were flashing a red caution sign, and saying 'Warning: Game Error. Data Salvage In Progress'.

"Cult?" Scar asked calmly.

"Yes?" The suddenly fearful man asked.

"Who was in charge of beta testing and ironing out the bugs?" The tall man asked.

Cult gulped. "Me?" He asked.

"Yes, you were." Scar agreed. "Now, tell me, how was it that you were somehow able to overlook a bug that was not only game-breaking, but it caused the Naruto RPG to get half-deleted?"

Cult licked his dry lips. "... Kyubi never used that exact sequence of words?" He half said, half asked. Mostly asked. Asked.

"That is a reasonable answer." Scar said, smiling. The man with the long black hair sighed, relieved. "But." Scar continued, freezing his friend's blood. "You're still fighting all-out with Fatal and Mes later."

Cult groaned while the nearby Fatal, a reasonably tanned girl with long light brown hair in a ponytail, wearing a black sleeveless shirt, baggy olive cargo pants, and no shoes, chuckled. "I like that idea. I'm still pissed at you for sleeping with that girl I trained a few years back."

The man with the ratty hair smiled stupidly. "Wu the Lotus Blossom? Yeah... She was-" He then caught the look the tallish girl was giving him and turned a pale white. "-w-was a superb, chaste warrior who must have been trained by some skilled and with a perfect, attractive, healthy weight."

"Nice save." The girl responded dryly. "I'll kill you a little more gently."

"VERY thin." Cult continued hopefully.

"Don't push it." Fatal shot back, grabbing a nearby chair.

Scar walked away as they began squabbling and smashing things. The game had literally been broken... Over half of the data was already corrupted, and he was beginning to suspect that it may have been a virus or something of that nature. He would look into finding out more of what had happened later, but the annoying point was that the game was now unplayable, at least until the man reconstructed the game. He had been able to isolate Naruto's consciousness at least, but it would stay that way for a time.

The man was especially annoyed, as he had begun to really like the idea of messing with the Narutoverse. It was a very entertaining place, and he had already come up with many ideas...

He walked through the system of caverns that he and his family lived in, built several miles under the 1930s New York. He had designed it himself, and his son had built it using his earth manipulation after the spot was located. It was quite the place, but he didn't feel like admiring it. At the moment, he needed to fume through kicking ass.

"Mes!" He shouted, hoping the hammer-wielding boy was available.

"Yeah?" Came the response from around the corner of the corridor he was walking in. Scar continued moving and saw his child sitting propped up against a wall, seemingly sleeping. Child wasn't really the word to describe the man, though, as he was thousands of years old and appeared to be sixteen at the moment. He wore a collared black leather jacket over a white thermal sweater, black jeans, and black combat boots, and his hair golden blonde hair was cleanly cut, sitting over a tanned face similar to Scar's.

"Want to spar?" The tall man asked.

Messiah raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were messing with that anime thing?"

His father's eye twitched. Once. Twice. Three times. "Will you just read the fucking Naruto manga?"

"No." Messiah replied plainly. "But seriously, what happened to that?"

Scar sighed. "Game-breaking glitch that fucked things up. Seriously, you want to fight or what? If you don't spar with me, then I'll have to get Cult to, and we tend to level even reinforced things like the training room when we go at it."

Messiah sighed. "Nah. I'm not in the mood to kick your ass. Why don't you just go find another universe and actually get involved in things instead of watching things happen like it's a goddamn game of the Sims?"

Scar responded in a bored tone, "Because it is impossible to have fun doing the same damn shit over and over again. Unless you have an orgy, which none of us do, and even then you'll eventually run out of new kinky shit to try." He was actually considering it, though. Come to think of it, with all the time it would take to fix the Naruto RPG, he could get into some things... Not the orgy, the getting physically involved. Get your minds out of the damn gutters. Come to think of it, who the hell is speaking to who right now?

"How do you know what an orgy is like?" Messiah asked curiously, shaking Scar out of thoughts that were breaking the fourth wall with amazing ease.

"Long story. Take note to go to a harem universe if you ever feel like walking into bathhouses, seeing naked women, and promptly getting slapped and/or kneed in the balls." Scar responded, remembering... Anything having to do with the people from the Love Hina anime, or Girls Bravo, or Rosario+Vampire.

"Noted." Messiah responded.

"Though now that you bring it up, meeting in the middle of modus operendais and changing things that way might work." The taller man responded. "I think I'll have to start checking Narutoverses for one that I like."

The blond man smiled. "I'm assuming we'll be leaving the others?"

"Of course, they have to fix my video game. Now come on, let's get checking. Oh, and you have the few hours it'll take me to find a suitable universe to read the fucking manga and watch the anime."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Aftermath of War and the Stranger's Offer

* * *

It was three days before Naruto woke up, and when he blinked his eyes open, he saw that he was not in the Forest of Death anymore. Instead, he saw that he was surrounded by grey concrete, some of it covered by a creamy white paint. The ceiling held the kind of hanging lamp you expect to see in an interrogation room, and the light was dim. Naruto laid there for a minute before he heard footsteps. He didn't bother trying to turn his head, knowing he would feel far too much pain

"Naruto." The redhead said, looking around the small room. "Good to see you're awake. I wasn't sure if you were going to recover at all."

Naruto nodded as slightly as he could to avoid pain, suddenly aware of how much his throat felt like sandpaper. "Water?" He croaked his throat hurting as he made the request.

Gaara walked over to the other side of his friend and knelt by a beaten up wooden bowl filled with pure water from a nearby spring. He picked up a wooden spoon in equally poor shape and took a few spoonfuls of water, feeding Naruto as the blond was in too much pain, far too weak to feed himself. After a dozen spoonfuls, Naruto had drunken his fill, and he shook his head slightly at the offered thirteenth spoonful. The sand wielder put the spoon back in the bowl and walked to the other side of the blond, this time pulling a stool from the corner and sitting on it. Naruto noticed that he had taken off his gourd and put it in the corner, and this was the last thing he noticed before he fell asleep again.

The second time he woke up was about a day and a half later. This time, the pain was bearable enough that he was able to turn his head to see Gaara, once more standing and watching vigil. "Water." He croaked again, the request coming easier this time. The redhead complied, giving Naruto the necessity in a similar manner as he had the time before. This time, the blond took drank even more, finishing off the bowl's contents, which was a good gallon of water.

Naruto felt strong enough to make another request, this time saying, "Food?" Gaara nodded and left the room for a minute, only to return with a chipped bowl that might have once been part of a china set. This was full of small chunks of some kind of meat, not that what it was mattered to the Hokage of the destroyed village he was recovering in. For all he cared, it could have been human, not that he thought Gaara would do something like that.

The redhead fed him once more, and Naruto greedily snatched each bit of meat from his friend's fingers whenever they came within reach. He figured out that it was venison after a few bites, and he briefly wondered if the redheaded man feeding him had caught one of the leftover deer from the Nara herds that now roamed the area wild. Naruto found it somewhat funny, envisioning what Shikamaru might have thought of that if he were here now.

After the blond was done with the food, he quickly slipped back into unconsciousness.

Naruto awoke the third time after another day. He and Gaara ran through the same motions, Gaara feeding him more food and water. This time the blond felt strong enough to talk to his friend.

"Did you check to see if it worked?" Naruto asked, his voice a little scratchy but getting back to normal.

Gaara nodded. "Yes, I made sure the Uchiha was dead. I don't think it was a trick. It really is over."

The blond could have cried. "Thank Kami." He croaked, emotions of happiness overwhelming him.

"More like Shinigami." Gaara corrected in a bit of dark humor. Naruto laughed despite not really feeling it, and the laugh quickly dissolved into a fit of coughs that had him jerking painfully. He felt the redhead's hands push him down and keep him from moving too much, lessening the pain that the movement brought his still recovering muscles. When the coughing fit stopped, the two simply rested in a comfortable silence, the only sound being Naruto's heavy breathing.

Finally, the blond asked, "This will sound like a stupid question, but were there any survivors?"

Naruto immediately regretted asking the question when he saw his friend's entire demeanor change, his shoulders sagging and an immeasurable sadness entering his eyes. "No." Gaara responded, weariness tinting his voice. "Though I can see why you would ask. It would be some good news."

After a minute, Naruto, in a voice heavy with emotion, said, "Yeah. I wish." After a few more minutes of silence, Gaara said, "I need to go and catch another deer." Naruto felt like laughing when his theories from the last day were confirmed, but remembering what had happened last time he'd done that, he settled for a smirk and let Gaara continue. "You should be fine here, this apartment building, despite its condition, seems safe." He got up and turned to leave, then stopped and turned back. "By the way, I found this in here, so I think we know whose apartment this is." The redhead pulled a picture out of one of the pockets on his flak jacket, as he was also dressed in the standard gear of his village, and showed it to Naruto.

It was the original Team Seven, Sasuke and Naruto on either side of a happy looking Sakura, Kakashi ruffling the hair of his two male students. Naruto nearly gasped when he saw this, only his desire to not further antagonize the muscles on his chest stopping him. "Of course." He wheezed, ready to kill another few thousand men, feeling frustration at life's tendency to take every opportunity to put him through the emotional wringer. "Just... Leave the picture somewhere. I need some more sleep."

Gaara nodded, put the picture beside Naruto, on the side without the water to avoid damage from spills. Naruto quickly fell asleep again.

One day later, Naruto awoke for the fourth and final time. Gaara wasn't in the room, but the Hokage felt strong enough to pull himself up and get his own water. He felt an intense pressure in his bladder and went outside his old apartment from the top floor to relieve said pressure, not really paying attention to the floors he passed. When he exited the building and relieved himself, he easily recognized the area around him. He had heard many muggings in the nearby alleys because of the good pickings provided by a nearby casino. How many times had some stupid kids decided it would be funny to egg the building?

He continued looking around. In this place, he had lived alone, all other tenants refusing to live in the same building as him. He understood now that it was because nobody wanted to be around him when there was the chance of the demon getting out, and that it was only a small fraction of the village, about a tenth of them, that believed the idiotic theories of him being the Kyubi. Still though... It hurt. Though he had to admit, that had had its benefits. He had knocked the walls down in the two middle floors and re-purposed them to be used for reasons outside of living.

The blond turned back and walked into his old apartment, not having to bother with a door, which laid nearby having been blown off of its hinges, and began looking around the building itself. He felt an overwhelming emotion that he could not identify swell in his chest as he looked around at the many signs that he had once lived in the place. There were faded drawings he had put on the walls of nothing in particular, just scribbles. He had done so in his exuberance when the Third had gotten him some crayons for his sixth birthday, along with the apartment itself. He also recognized graffiti on the walls put there by prejudiced villagers, saying hateful things and calling him a demon without directly breaking Sarutobi's law.

The blond turned back into the building and began walking up the stairs, which was all that thee first floor consisted of. The building, which had been one of the few not demolished in Nagato's attack, held many of the signs that Naruto had lived there. As he walked up the dimly lit hallways, he noticed more faded graffiti on the walls, saying idiotic things that had one big thing in common; they all called him a demon in some way or another. As he moved his legs, which held an annoying similarity to lead, up the flight of stairs, he tried to remember what he used the second floor of the four building's floors for.

It wasn't until he reached the level and saw the hand-drawn targets on the walls, full of old kunai and shuriken, and the old training dummy he'd salvaged from an unused training ground that he remembered he had used the floor as a training studio, mainly before he had graduated from the academy.

The man chuckled as he noticed how far off some of the projectiles were from the edges of the target, much less the bulls-eye. _'Damned if I haven't gotten better at killing people.' _He thought dryly. He didn't bother examining the floor, as he didn't particularly want to think of combat at the moment. He moved up the next two flights of stairs to the third floor, thankfully no insulting comments painted on the wall as he walked up, and he easily remembered this floor. He had used it as a greenhouse.

Still, he was surprised by how much his original few plants had flourished. He looked around and saw an oasis of green and red and yellow, the three plants he had grown out on the terrace of what had once been a relatively vacant level, which were a rosebush, a normal shrub, and sunflowers, having expanded rapidly. They now covered the area entire floor, holes in the walls letting sunlight and rainwater in for substance and the many open bags of fertilizer and soil he had left lying around giving the correct ground.

_'Life goes on.' _The usually happy blond thought bitterly, remembering all those who had died over the last few years. He didn't quite get why anything should live when pretty much everything the blond had ever cared about had died. They had no right to when so much good had been taken from the world for no good reason...

He quickly banished these thoughts from his mind; he was too tired for them right now. He clambered up even more damned stairs to the floor he had lived on, and the blond realized them that Gaara had dragged out his bed from the bedroom to the small living room for him, while the redheaded man had rested on the nearby couch, which the blond hadn't before noticed, though that was forgivable considering he hadn't been in much of a state to notice much of anything. He smiled Gaara's courtesy and laid back down on the familiar mattress, closing his eyes but not sleeping. He specifically avoided thinking about anything, because he was too afraid he would think about things that would send him down the "Path of the Emo Self-Pitying Jackass" as he had dubbed it, a path Sasuke had known all too well. And so he just laid there and rested.

He laid like that for about fifteen minutes before he heard Gaara enter, noticing due to an eternally creaking step on the third flight of stairs. Naruto smiled, remembering how many times it had alerted him to either villages looking to write insults on his wall or, towards the end of the "real" war when he had started to really fuck up the Uchiha's plans, Zetsu trying to attack him.

"Gaara!" He called out, feeling little pain when he swung his legs off of the bed and standing up. "I can move again!"

When the redhead came up the stairs and saw Naruto standing and stretching, he smiled slightly, glad to see his last living friend up. When Naruto saw Gaara, he nearly jumped out of his skin, and with good reason. The guy's hands matched his hair in their shade, and there were specks of blood all over the rest of him.

"What the hell did you do, Gaara?" Naruto asked, pointing to the man's hands.

The redhead frowned. "It isn't exactly easy to catch a deer with sand and leave it edible." He said, pulling off his gourd and placing it in the corner. "I got a little... Frustrated, and I ended up tackling the stag I was chasing and stabbing it until it went down." He paused. "Then I may have stabbed it another dozen times for good measure." Another pause. "Again, I was frustrated. I had been chasing it for a half hour."

Naruto, who had been inching away bit by bit as Gaara spoke, rubbed the back of his head and said, "Whatever you say Gaara, whatever you say..."

The redhead sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I think I might have liked you better unconscious."

"Aw, you know you love me." The blond responded, walking over and plopping down on the couch. He instantly regretted the movement as a wave of pain washed over him. He grimaced as it passed, and he said, "Remind me not to do anything like that again."

The redhead sighed in response and sat down next to him. They were silent for a moment before Naruto finally said what was on both of their minds. "We really did it, didn't we?" The Fire Shadow asked, leaning his head back into the surprisingly comfortable couch.

Gaara, who was sitting forward and resting his arms on his thighs, responded with a small smile on his face. "Against all odds, reason, and sense, we did."

"How the hell did we pull that off?" Naruto asked, smiling slightly.

The Kazekage shrugged in response. "We had good friends behind us, and those good friends were good fighters. And we could fight as well. We were also fighting for people we loved and ideals we believed in."

Naruto smile in response, though Gaara didn't see that due to his forward sitting position. "Sounds about right." Then he realized something that wiped the smile right off his face. He sat forward, his eyes wide open and full of sudden pain. "Gaara, have you-"

The redheaded man immediately nodded, already understanding what the blond was going to ask, having expected it. "I recovered the headbands and made the mounds and markers. All that's left is putting the hitai-ates where they need to go."

Naruto nodded, his mind still reeling from the fact that he had nearly forgotten that he needed to do what the entire group had agreed the survivors would need to do. "Well then... I guess we need to get started." The Hokage slowly got up and began walking. He heard Gaara walk behind him, and the two continued in silence down to the bottom floor.

When they exited the building, Naruto noticed that the corpse of a large deer was lying on the ground nearby, expertly skinned, the meat of the animal readied to be stripped and cooked. The blond turned to Gaara and said, "You lead from here. I don't know where you set things up."

Gaara complied and walked in front of Naruto. They walked through a few alleyways and streets until they reached the center of the village, an open plaza that was overlooked by the Hokage's office and the monument. Well, it had been, but the office was demolished and most of the faces on the monument had something wrong with them; the Shodai was missing his chin, the Nidai had lost the left side of his jaw, the Sandai was missing the entire bottom half of his head, the Yondai had no nose, and there was a web of cracks on the Godai's face that made her look a little old. When Naruto had noticed this the day before the final battle, he had laughed his ass off.

Now that the cracked face overlooked eighteen cross grave markers and burial mounds, he didn't really feel like laughing.

Gaara went to a ruined wall that had once been part of a nice tea shop that Shizune had frequented and picked up a bag that jingled as he hefted it into the air. He offered it to the blond, and said blonde took it. He opened it and swiftly examined the contents, suddenly feeling the need to vomit when he did so. Inside the bag were thirty-six headbands, each of them having belonged to one of Naruto's allies.

"Shit..." Naruto whispered, looking down at the metal plates. "When we agreed to use these for grave markers, I don't think anyone thought of how sick it would make the guys who had to do this."

Gaara nodded solemnly. "I had a similar feeling." His voice cracked at his next words, and his usually stoic face showed pain. "I haven't felt like that since Temari and Kankuro..." He trailed off, his voice catching. Naruto looked up and switched to holding the sack of protectors with one hand, placing his now free hand on Gaara's shoulder. The redhead looked at his friend, who nodded in an assuring manner. Gaara smiled slightly in thanks, and the two moved their attention to the grim task they now had before them.

"Alright. Let's get this done." Naruto said unnecessarily. The bag of forehead protectors still in his hand, he went to the first grave, stopping to the right of the mound. "I don't suppose there are actually any bodies in here?" The blond asked, knowing the answer already.

"Everybody's except for Kakashi's was too close to the explosion." Gaara responded sadly, angered by the fact that not even his friends' bodies could get the respect they deserved in the form of a proper burial, instead destroyed in an effort to defeat the enemy they had died fighting. His stoic facade did not allow him to show it, but the fury was there.

The blond Hokage, picking up on his friend's anger, simply nodded. "Of course. Suits our luck."

Gaara smiled bitterly at that. "Yes, it does. I suppose we should get started." Naruto moved to the line of markers and began rummaging through the sack.

"Where did you bury Kakashi?" The blond asked the Kazekage. The sand-shifter pointed to the first grave marker in the line, and at the same time Naruto adjusted his course towards the specified marker he removed two headbands from the bag. One was the deseased cyclop's hidden leaf headband, the other the one issued to him at the beginning of the war.

The blond stoically tied a headband to each side of the cross, the only noise being his and Gaara's breathing and some rats scurrying through the wreckage of the village. He then moved on to the next one, pulling out a hidden leaf headband and an alliance headband. He recognized them as belonging to Manabu Iwate due to his name being inscribed onto the front of both, around the symbols, as it had been with Kakashi's forehead protectors.

The next grave belonged to Manabu's brother, Mamoru. Then they marked the final resting place of Karui. Then Darui. And so down the line the two men went, both solemn as they put their friends to rest with all the ceremony they could afford to give. Then, Naruto and Gaara came across the final grave. This one belonged to Hinata.

Scar placed a snub-nosed revolver into a shoulder holster covered by his vest, before withdrawing it and staring at it for a mintue. _'I wonder if I'll be pushing it, bringing this to a world of ninja. Ah, screw it. I wonder if something like that scene from Indiana Jones will play out...'_

He roused himself out of these musings, turning his attention to the funeral procession occurring on his monitoring screen. He found it hard to care, but the human part of him that had survived to the point he was at felt a pang of empathy. Some of the loss and pain he had endured over the millennia came to mind, but he quickly expelled those thoughts and stored the pistol in his hand where it belonged. He reached over for some more of his weapons, including a few throwing knives and...

"Why the fuck..." Messiah said, walking into the room. He had not visibly armed himself, though Scar did not doubt that the other man had his weapon of choice on his person somewhere. He was gesturing to an item on the table "...Are you bringing... _that_...?"

The scared man looked at the specified item on table that still contained many of the items. "That has a use."

"What, exactly?" The blond man asked, afraid of the answer.

"Checking to see if we're dealing with the fanon Anko Mitarashi, canon Anko Mitarashi, or super fanon Anko Mitarashi." Scar answered, stowing a combat knife at his side, next to a falchion.

"What is the difference, exactly?" Messiah asked, remembering the girl, the anime fresh on his mind from his past few days of watching it.

Scar made sure his pockets were full of forged ryo notes. "One will look at that and say it is a bit too big for her, but thanks for the sentiment, then she will kick my ass. Two will kick my ass for the suggestion. The other will rob me of it and not leave her apartment for a few days. She may also take some of my blood."

"Vampiric tendencies? Of course..." Messiah said. "Still, though..." He continued gesturing to the massive purple dildo on the table. "Why did you even keep that thing?"

"It was a gift." Scar said with a shrug. "Considering denying that particular saint generally leads to being sprayed with septic fluids, I decided to accept it at the time. Now that he's dead, I keep it for the memories."

Messiah sighed. "Strange memento. He was surprisingly thoughtful for a criminal. Smart enough to not easily divulge his name. Took us forever to figure it out."

"True words." The well-dressed man responded. He stowed the monstrous purple weapon in a storage seal painted on his chest in the universal, then looked to his falchion and removed it from his side, hiding it in the same seal. "Well, have you finished the anime and manga?"

"As far as it goes." The seemingly teenaged boy replied. "A pretty odd plot line. I'm just waiting for it to devolve into yaoi porn, the way the writer seems to be attached at the mouth to the Uchiha's collective dick. And what the hell is with Sasuke? His brother gave his life for the village, and in return the little idiot avenger vows to destroy the village-"

"There's a reason I picked a universe that both needs my help in a way that only those like us can give help, and is very different from the canon timeline." Scar assured his son, trying to make it clear that the horrid canon plot was going as much out the window as possible. "At least, I think this isn't canon. It would certainly come out of left field if it became canon."

Messiah raised an eyebrow. "What kind of universe are we going into?"

Scar sighed in response. "As far as I can tell, there was a divergence somewhere in which Madara was completely eliminated, yet at the same time, so were the Allied Shinobi forces. There was then a large amount of guerrilla warfare by a small group of skilled fighters, led by Naruto. Eventually they destroyed the Zetsu army, but then Obito raised a force of his own, made of traitors to the allied forces. During this time period, Naruto and his team suffered losses. There was recently a final battle in which Obito was killed. However... Truly everyone was killed. The only two left alive of those who mattered in the series are Naruto and Gaara. Right now, they're burying their fallen friends."

"What about the most emo of the Uchiha?" The blonder of the two asked curiously.

He received only a shrug in response. "We'll have to ask when we get there."

"I thought you were tired of direct involvement?" Messiah asked curiously, an eyebrow raised.

"Yes." Scar answered. "However, I have an idea that takes from the best of both worlds."

"And that means...?" His son questioned, his eyebrow still raised.

"We send him back, give him some gifts, throw in our services as craftsmen to an extent, and watch the fireworks." The taller man said back, moving to the other side of the room to grab a small, ornate pistol. "Will we need our personas?" He asked. Before Messiah could answer, he tucked it in his pocket and muttered, "Better safe than sorry. But I want to try to avoid using anything too powerful; we will make it clear we are skilled, but we can't be too skilled. Becoming anonymous has always been a powerful aid, watching some of the people we've met over the years are proof of that."

Messiah leaned against a nearby wall and cupped his chin in thought. "Could be entertaining. Could be boring. I might have to get a little bit involved."

His father simply shrugged in response. "Alright, just don't ruin things for me. Oh, hold on." Then Scar's body changed, aging him forward only slightly. Whereas before he had held the appearance of a man age thirty at best before, he now looked like someone who could claim to be as old as forty, and in no way could claim to be younger than his late twenties. "Have to make it believable that I have a son your age."

The other man chuckled in response. "Then turn into dust, idiot."

The suddenly aged man threw his child a sideways look. "Nice. I meant your apparent age. Now come on, it looks like a good, dramatic moment to jump in."

Naruto fell to his knees, his shock finally hitting him. Before, he had been too focused on recovering, focusing on Obito's death, focusing on his nostalgia. Now that he stared at the grave that would be all to mark the death of those who had fought, now that he held the last two objects that his lover had ever known, the only material proof he could think of that she had existed...

It truly hit him as he stared at the wooden marker. His friends were dead. His village was destroyed. It was only now that he regretted negotiating his life from the death god that had granted him victory.

Warm tears were streaming down his face before he realized his eyes were even watering. He hadn't cried since Jiraiya had died, but now every part of him was shaking as he fell to his knees, feeling a mix of grief, anger, hatred, and physical pain. The last was more than likely due to the residual soreness still plaguing him, though the others were due to the fact that he now registered everything that would never happen again. All the good times, all the fond memories... Into his head came a thought unbidden.

* * *

_Naruto stared at Ko, his poker face stony and unbreakable, something he had to master to go against the muscle-reading Hyuga. One passive, pupiless eye stared back at him, as if daring him to actually win. Naruto could feel all eyes on him, silently cheering him on, urging him to end the tyrannical stranglehold Ko had on one of the teams most beloved past times._

_The blond threw forward an exploding note onto the pile of assorted ninja tools, including kunai, shuriken, smoke bombs, senbon, and even a dart coated in poison. Ko responded with his own explosive note, as stoically as ever. The room stopped breathing for a second as both players showed their five cards. On the one-eyed man's side, there were five cards whose relation was only the diamond in the corner. Naruto's cards were..._

_"He won..." Kakashi breathed from nearby, staring at the four aces on Naruto's side of the rotten wooden table. The eighteen people around the two card players erupted in quiet cheers, or in Lee's case, as quiet as he got. The blond stood victoriously his arms in the air as he felt pats of congratulations all over his back and shoulders._

_"Victory!" He exclaimed, grabbing the tools off the table. Ko smiled slightly, though there was a bit of confusion in his eyes._

_"Any reason for the celebrations?" He asked, amusement touching his tone._

_Kiba responded to that question in an exuberant manner. "Dude, none of us have ever beat you! And Naruto just did it!"_

_Ko blinked. "I hadn't realized I had never been beaten in this card game. It is too bad I didn't even get to enjoy my perfect record." He then stood up. "Well good for you Naruto. It is getting late; I'll be going to bed." Nobody had really heard him, though, they were far too busy losing their minds over one of the few things they'd had to celebrate for quite some time._

_"Long live the new Poker King!" They sang, tripping over the words as they laughed._

_Three hours later, when things had died down and everyone was resting, Naruto was lying down in a small tent he had made out of rock, which was just outside the rotted, remote barn the group was clustered in and around. He felt movement next to him, and turned to see Hinata twisting and turning, letting out a small whimper every few seconds. The blond adjusted himself to a sitting position, leaning against one of the rock walls of their tent, before pulling the girl up with him and leaning her against the wall next to him._

_His jostling actions awoke her, and she jerked to consciousness while trying to strike him. He knew to hold her arms by her side during occasions like this though, so he was more than capable of avoiding the strike. The Hyuga's eyes search around the room as she attempted to figure out where, and she shook her head to get strands of her longish, sloppily cut hair out of her face._

_When she finally figured out where she was, or more appropriately discovered where she was actually not, she grabbed onto Naruto for dear life, pressing together the twos' naked bodies. Had she not been reeling from her obviously horrific nightmare, such an act would have placed a light dusting of red over her cheeks._

_She was shaking like a leaf, actually causing Naruto some discomfort with how hard she was holding him. They didn't converse on what she had been dreaming about; this happened often enough that they both knew the terrors that plagued their times of rest._

_Naruto held her close and rubbed small circles around the small of her back. "It's okay, it's all okay. It's in the past, everything is in the past." He continued to whisper words of comfort into her ear as she slowly got herself under control. Finally, she seemed to have lost her panic and was back under control._

_"Why..." She asked him, starting to shake again, this time in frustration, her face still in his chest. "Why do these damn dreams keep coming back? I'm stronger than this, dammit." Her cursing came only with the greatest distress, having still maintained some form of her etiquette training. _

_"Because you dream about memories, when you were scared and young. It isn't your fault. I'm the same way."_

_She was silent for a moment before she said, "Why are we never strong enough at the right time? I couldn't get strong enough to save Hanabi and my father and Konoha, and you couldn't be strong enough to defeat Obito and Madara before everything was lost..."_

_Naruto sighed. "We just have to keep on moving, Hinata. We're the only ones who can." He smiled. "Besides, I'm sort of glad we fought Madara that day. It was what made me figure out that I loved you."_

_She pulled away from his chest and smiled up at him, remembering the day Madara and Obito had truly gained the upper should have been a day of mourning, but for her it held one of her fondest memories. "It did do that, didn't it?" Her smile fell. "If we had managed to beat him then, you would be Hokage. I would be head of my clan; my family would still be alive…" She trailed off. "We could have children._

_Naruto smiled sadly at her. "I know." He told her. "Once this is over Hinata. I promise you."_

_She smiled at him as well. "Your ninja way."_

"_Never broken a promise. They just sometimes take me a few years." Naruto said. He instantly regretted his latter statement as his lover's face fell._

"_Can we continue going years?" She asked him, a look of true despair on her face._

_Naruto's own mask cracked a bit at that, his face falling. "You ask like we have a choice." They both shared a moment of despair, and the blond quickly decided that was far too depressing for his liking. Rolling hard, he pinned Hinata under him, pressing their bodies close and eliciting a squeak from her._

"_Hey, that leaves us plenty of time to practice making kids. Gotta take our time when we can." Naruto said in a manner that could only be described as foxy. Hinata smiled demurely, leaning up slightly to match her lips to his. They shared the tender moment, enjoying a passionate night, a bit of brightness in their bleak existence._

_This had three years ago. Before things had gotten so bad they'd all suffer from forced insomnia, before they'd had to quick bathing, before they'd all been forced to run on almost no energy every day of their lives. Back when they had hope. This had been something good. _

_Something that would never happen again._

* * *

Never again.

"Son of a bitch." Naruto muttered, feeling an even greater pain then that he had experienced while summoning the death god. "Son of a bitch!" He shouted it this time, startling Gaara, who had been staring at his friend sadly. "Why the hell did he have to take them? Take her?" He fell to all fours and struck the ground, ignoring the pain the sudden action caused his still healing muscles. "Damn you Obito!" He said, primal rage entering his voice.

"Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhh !" He howled, like a wounded animal, an eagle hit with an arrow, a wolf stabbed with a knife, a fox trapped in a bear trap, gnawing at its leg in hope for escape.

Silence then fell as the pained roar ended. Then a throat was cleared behind the two kage, and they both turned, sand swirling around Gaara from his gourd and his special kunai coming from Naruto's clothing.

The blonde saw a well-dressed man with noble features and a haircut not dissimilar to the late Danzo, standing with perfect posture, his arms behind his back. These were not his noticeable features, however. No, his noticeable features were the scars that covered his face, his arms, his hands, and more than likely the areas covered by his clothes. Some were simple, small scars, thin and almost unnoticeable. Others were massive gashes, wheel scars, thick wounds, and on his temple looked as if it had been caused by acid. Next to him was a shorter man who was still fairly tall, with cleanly cut blonde hair and garments meant for long stays in a region with a nippy climate. His facial structure was very similar, denoting some family resemblance. "I hate to interrupt your melodramatic anguish, but I feel I can help you with this little problem of dead people."

Naruto held up his guard, staring warily at the man who had spoken. "Is that so?" The blonde knew he was currently at the level of Kakashi when team seven had first been formed, due to the blonde's damaged muscles and the limited ability his damaged chakra pathways had to channel energy, but Gaara was fresh, and the two men didn't look that strong. He felt as if he had room to intimidate.

"Yes." The man agreed. "Oh, and if you think you can take us, then look at your friend." Naruto did so, and nearly literally jumped when he saw the blonde stranger holding Gaara in a position similar to the one Sasuke Uchiha had held a sound ninja in years ago, during the second part of the catastrophic chunin exams. The redhead's sand was laying around him in piles, and his face was contorted in pain.

"What the hell..." Naruto whispered, staring. Then he narrowed his eyes and turned back to the taller of the two unknowns. "Who the hell are you and what do you want?" He demanded, suddenly feeling fear, and more dominantly, anger. He was having immense difficulty in not charging the blonde holding Gaara, but his intuition told him to hold back despite his anger.

"Now, now, don't be so hostile." The man said placatingly, holding out his palms and shocking the blonde. On his overly large hand was another scar that made Naruto wonder exactly what could have caused it, for on his palm it looked as if his flesh had simply fallen in on itself, a crater around the size of Naruto's fist less than a centimeter deep. "I want to help you help me by helping yourself." The scared man continued. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a small pocket watch.

"And how are you going to do that, exactly?" The blonde asked warily, his guard still up and doing his best to ignore the injury on the stranger's palm.

The man stared at his watch in a bored manner for a moment before looking up, his expression changing from disinterested to intense. "Let me ask you; are you happy with how you've spent your time?"

The question caught the whiskered man off guard, and it showed on his face. "What the hell do you mean by that?" He asked.

The tall man smiled slightly. "Funny, last time I asked that question to another, he said the same thing. His name was Souji Seta. I have the feeling you two will answer the same way as well. But to prove that idea, I have to ask again. Do you at all regret the way you have spent your life, from the moment you drew your first breath to now?"

Naruto thought on the question for a moment, feeling as if he should answer it, before he realized how difficult a question that was to answer. While he had certainly made many friends and achieved his goal of stopping the "Eye of the Moon" plan, there had been so much wasted time. Time wasted on pranks, lazy afternoons he could have been growing stronger, years he could have been with the woman he had be shocked to find he loved...

"I don't regret my choices. But I do regret how they turned out." Naruto answered, his mouth opened slightly as he stared at nothing visible.

"Looks like I'm always right." The tall man said with an unhappy smile. "I think I know what you'll say if I offer you that time back."

"What the hell are you saying?" Naruto asked his eyes wide. His mind was slowly putting together the pieces, realizing the implications, and a little bit of hope came up in his chest. If this man was being truthful, and if he could trust him...

"I'm suggesting" the man said, closing his watch and putting it away, "time travel. I can send your spirit, your memories, your skills, and your personality back to your body at a time of your choosing. We could go back to when you were an infant. We could go back to the day you met Sasuke. We could go back to your Graduation from the academy. We could go back to the return of your training trip. If you think it would be best, I could send you to a time before your birth. It's your choice. But there are some rules."

Slowly, Naruto felt himself drop his weapon in fall to the ground, staring at the stranger in shocked awe. "Who the hell..." He said, staring at the scarred men.

"Oh, yes. How rude of me. My name is Scar, and the man who just released your friend is my son, Messiah. Both of us could obliterate you without a second thought." Naruto looked over and saw the other blonde pulling Gaara to his feet. "Now," Scar continued, "on to the rules. First rule, you can bring back others with you. But I'm putting on a cap of five others, not counting red over there, because seven is a solid, lucky number. Second, don't expect my help in combat. I can give you gadgets, I can give you advice, hell, if you impress me I'll break that rule slightly take out one single Akatsuki ninja for you, or anything else that will be a bitch for you to fight. That'll be a one time deal though, and only if I feel like stretching my legs. But beyond that, I'll open a shop in your village and watch things unfold. You might be able to get more out of Messiah, but I'm trying to be just a spectator, not a teacher or that much of an ally. Rule three... No wait, I think that's it. Oh wait, that's right. You reveal anything without my permission, then I'll move on and you'll be alone. So, what do you say?"

"... You really expect me to take in everything, contemplate things, weigh the pros and cons, and give you my answer that quickly?" Naruto asked, feeling calmness wash over him. Of course, calmness was generally a sign that he had decided to roll with the punches, and that usually indicated budding insanity.

"Point taken." Scar conceded. "Why don't you and your friend talk things over? We'll return tomorrow. See you then." It was then that the two vanished from sight. Naruto quickly swiveling his neck to look around and registering Gaara as the only other living thing capable of intelligent conversation.

It was a minute before Gaara spoke in an incredibly out-of-character way. "What in the name of Shukaku's sandy balls just happened?" He asked, his voice seeming to fight between its usual monotone and utter disbelief.

Naruto, his defense finally lowered and most of his muscles slack with sheer disbelief, ran his hand through his hair. "Let's go figure that out."

* * *

**Several reviews made me need to update a few days early so I could answer this and clear up any other confusion.**

**As long as they stay a manageable number, I'm gonna answer reviews here. They likely will for awhile, so yeah. I'll also answer the reviews on Immortals and their Video Games since they largely pertain to this.**

**Faraway-R: I'm truly flattered. Keep your eye out for the rewrite, that'll get a chapter a month like this. Difference is I won't publish that until this is done, need to make sure it's good. I'm swiftly finding out why authors don't publish their books a chapter at a time.**

**Spoit0: No reason to keep Immortals up. I'll use this to alert people when the rewrite is up. **

**zigmas: Hell if I know. Glad you got to check it once.**

**the flamer- You're trying to piss me off, but you made good points, thanks. You've made me really paranoid about my spelling; I likely still missed something in here, but this chapter is a lot cleaner thanks to your review. As for originality, yeah, it isn't that new. But I'll be putting my own spin on it and hell, it's too fun a concept to write.**

**Onto reviews for this story.**

**DarthElendil: Thanks for the review, and don't worry. On paper, Naruto is about the level of Nagato now, though his little X factors like perseverance would put him a level Obito. A lot of villains will be getting power boost as well after the time skip for reasons you'll see, and Naruto will get a few handicaps. By the end of things he'll be stronger than he is now, but that'll be awhile. **

**critique: This chapter explains things. And since Naruto will never officially go to any of these worlds and they will not come here, it isn't a crossover. All gods are OCs.  
**

**Jman12394: I really could've deleted the data that made up his junk. **

**Guest: Nope, game is gone. For now. They're in real time right now.**

**darkerdeepdown: Neither, this is a different story. Just some of the same characters.**

**I value your reviews, I beg you to keep them coming my very valued readers! I literally act like a puppy trying to reach steak on the counter for the first couple hours while I wait for them to come in.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Kages' Decisions and the Beginning of the End of the Beginning of the New Beginning

* * *

After tying the two headbands to each side of Hinata's grave marker, during which time Naruto nearly broke down again, the two dazed and confused kage walked through the village for a time, not communicating but instead thinking about their situation before figuring out their next move. Naruto saw many things he recognized, each sight bringing a wave of nostalgia crashing down on as he toured the village, a village he hadn't been through in years.

He recognized dozens of alleyways he once scurried around in, fleeing from the effects of his pulled pranks, everything chasing him, including the kitchen sink, which was generally used as a projectile. When he came across the Academy, it took a good portion of his willpower to avoid going in the building and reliving the boring lectures, the afternoons of detention, and all the other memories he had once thought of sourly but had become fond when they were associated with Iruka after the blonde's unique graduation.

Soon, though, they came upon a sight that nearly made Naruto's heart break while also making it swell with happiness.

The sight was a worn food stand, the sign saying 'Ichiraku Ramen'.

"I can't believe that out of all the places I could have subconsciously lead us, it was the one with the ingredients for ramen!" Naruto shouted gleefully from behind the counter, over a small fire under a pot of boiling water. He dumped in a package of preserved noodles that the man knew Old Ichiraku had made and then kept in the back for emergencies. Fortunately the old man had known how to correctly store things, so despite their age the noodles were still good.

"I'm honestly not surprised." Gaara said, smiling happily at his friend's childish glee. "You have a tendency to locate any and all ramen within a three mile radius."

"Yep." Naruto agreed happily. He finished cooking the noodles before serving them in cracked bowls from behind the counter. He and Gaara both began eating, glad for something other than venison. The two happily ate their meal in peace, but both knew it was a peace that could not last.

After grabbing a third helping from the pot behind the counter, Naruto sat down on his side once again, before looking at Gaara with a raised eyebrow. "So… You're guy say anything to you?" He asked.

Gaara nodded. "Yes. He told me I should take up a weapon, master genjutsu, and come up with some taijutsu style to work in tandem with my sand if I ever wanted to be worthy of the title of Kazekage."

The blond thought for a moment before he said, "But you have developed a taijutsu style for working with your sand."

"Yes." His redheaded counterpart agreed. "It makes me think that despite what they seem to be trying to impart, they don't know everything about us. We might have an ace in the hole if this turns out to be a trap."

"Not sure this is a Haku here." Naruto responded cupping his chin. "And even if it was, it would be a pointless one… Gaara, this guy could kill us if he wanted to. Wouldn't even be difficult."

Gaara blinked at that, surprised. "Maybe in your current state, but at full strength Naruto, in an upfront fight, surely we could-"

"Nah." Naruto cut in. "I could tell. My seventh sense was going off. Fortunately, my sixth sense wasn't."

That got the kazekage's attention. The blonde's seventh sense was his innate, uncanny ability to guess danger, something all in the group had developed, though not to his friend's keenness. Naruto's 'Sixth Sense' was his ability to sense negative emotions; not even Madara or Obito had been able to counter that. "Ah..." Gaara trailed off.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. So, let's cut to the chase. Do you think we should go back in time? When and who should we bring back?"

The kazekage contemplated the question. "I think we should. I don't think I could live with myself if I pass up on an opportunity to fix everything... To bring everyone back."

Naruto nodded in agreement, images of his friends coming to mind. Hinata, Kakashi, Konohamaru, Iruka... "You're right." He said, resolve in his tone. "Even if this Scar guy is full of crap, we have to try."

"Exactly." Gaara said, nodding at his friend. "But we still have to figure out where we're going back, and who we want with us."

"Yeah." The blond agreed, "I've been thinking about that, and I'm thinking I could make some good changes if I went back to my seventh birthday. It's about when I entered the academy, and before I became known as a loser. If I can get the respect of everyone by showing my strength, I can start influencing them to work harder, and reach where they were sooner. Maybe even exceed that strength."

Gaara nodded, understanding the wisdom behind his fellow kage's words. "Yes... I think that was before Uncle Yashumaru decided to do what he did, so I can make that work as well."

"Good." Naruto responded. His mind was whirling with thoughts. "Kakashi is definitely a must, just in case he's our only hope for fighting Obito. But that still leaves three slots."

The blonde's redheaded companion nodded, then said, "Hinata."

Naruto blinked in surprise before sighing, seeming to age a decade or two. "While I appreciate the gesture, we can't choose based on emotions."

"I'm not." Gaara said with a shrug. "You and I both know that she is a powerful ninja in her own right, and she'll have a strong political position as the Hyuga Heiress. Not only that, but..." He reached across the counter and clapped his hand on his friend's shoulder. "We need you in your best condition, and for that, you need her."

The blonde stared at his fellow kage for a long moment before he sighed and grabbed the redhead's wrist. "Thank you."

Gaara nodded, smiling. "I'm only doing what's best. Now," He removed his hand from Naruto's shoulder and but kept it held out, absentmindedly swirling sand around the palm. "But that still leaves two spots."

The duo sat for almost an hour then, trying to figure out who would join them in the past. Even had they not been so focused, they would not have noticed the creature waiting in the shadows, moving away to report.

"They come to a decision yet?" Scar asked from his position in a circle. He currently sat in the middle of the wreckage of the once great Sunagakure, surrounded by runes he had drawn, the runes themselves being something he had picked up from a demon in the mystical realm of Thedas, known as the Fade. The tall man had been told it was a ritual to 'summon death', though he wasn't sure if that meant something as simple as a powerful magical attack, the summoning of a Pride demon, or a true call to a lord of death.

"Yeah." Messiah said, hefting a massive, ornate hammer over his shoulder. The weapon seemed to be made of pure silver, and was decorated with gold, diamonds, and sapphires, looking for all intents and purposes a decorative piece, instead of an amazingly deadly weapon forged by one of the greatest blacksmiths to ever live. "They're taking the deal, and have decided on Kakashi Hatake and Hinata Hyuga at the moment. I'd also be willing to place money on bringing back Shikamaru Nara. From what Judgment managed to glean from their hearts' desires, both were close to the guy and relied on him for strategy, and he was apparently an incredibly powerful combatant in his own right, by this world's standards, at least.. As for the last two slots, neither has any clue at the moment, so we'll decide for them if they can't figure things out before we get tall, pale, and deathly on the line."

Scar nodded, focusing on equally distributing his power amongst the runes; they were not necessary, but simply made to further intensify his power to grant his call to death both greater volume and clarity. The last thing the man needed was to summon the goddess of love, or perhaps the god of sleep. His using an unknown call for the purpose of summoning an entity the spell's creator hadn't even known existed needed all the help it could get.

"Good." The heavily scarred man said, withdrawing some energy from a rune that ironically stood for life. "That should be enough for now. Report back to me when they make their final choice, but let them know we'll meet them within three hours from that time."

"Think you'll be able to talk a god of death into giving up as many souls at you're going to end up taking?" Messiah asked, cracking his neck and thinking about exactly how he would take the death god down should there be issues.

Scar nodded a second time. "It all depends. Even if he's the type that just likes to see his realm grow, we'll just use force."

"Alright." The blond immortal said with a shrug. He looked over the multiple runes and frowned. "Is it really smart to use an untested spell for a purpose outside of the spell's construct?"

"No." Scar said with a shake of his head. "But on the off chance I summon something that can fight me; it isn't like it can really kill me. Besides, I want to see what this thing does." He called on the magical energy within him. "Now go, I need their last few people before we can really get started."

* * *

"So Shikamaru, then?" Gaara asked for confirmation, eating yet another bowl of ramen. Looking at his friend's again empty bowl, he briefly thought of asking how many bowls the blond had eaten, but he decided against it. It was for the better of his sanity that he didn't try to comprehend Naruto's insatiable hunger for noodles.

Through a mouthful of said food, the jinchuriki said something similar to "That's right", but it came out as "Taug rike". He swallowed, then frowned. "That still leaves two spots, though. We need to use that spot to get something we don't have with anyone else we chose."

Gaara pondered that for a moment, wondering exactly what they could further do to gain an advantage with only regaining one person. Between both the fact that Hinata had some political power in Konoha, and that the redhead planned on regaining his position from his father as soon as possible, political pull was just about covered. They could always bring in Tsunade, that was a very real option, but she could contribute only in combat and leadership, something they had plenty of. They had combat strength with the four they had gotten, so anyone who could contribute mostly in that area would not be helpful.

Naruto's thought processes were quite a bit difference, instead just thinking about people at random. _'Killer Bee? No, he's too stuck. Can't communicate. Granny? Maybe, but what does she really bring? Political clout and the ability to beat on perverts? I can get the first one with Sarutobi, and the second with any female. Speaking of pervs, what about Jiraiya? He's mobile, he's strong. Of course he would be a bit behind... But still, a spy master would be good.'_

Then, at the same time Naruto said, "Jiraiya," his redheaded friend said, "Itachi Uchiha."

The two stared at each other for a minute. "Alright... Why?" Naruto said, his eyebrow raised. "Why do you want Itachi Uchiha back?"

"He has influence." Gaara said. "He is a full-fledged ninja at the time of our birth, a prodigy even and next in line for the leadership of the Uchiha. That's not even mentioning his skills. And then we're assuming that he stays. If not, once we can contact him, he will have mobility granted by Akatsuki, and he will be perhaps the best mole we could have in regards to stopping the jinchuriki from dying, and stopping Obito before he can bring back Madara fully."

The hokage was quiet for a moment after hearing the kazekage's reasoning, before sighing. "Dammit, you're right." His mind was already swirling with the possibilities of having the man on his side, when the cynical side of him stopped him cold. "Wait, how do we know he'll cooperate?" The blonde asked.

Gaara shrugged in response. "We did what he failed miserably to do in stopping Madara and Obito. It isn't like whatever it was he was planning on doing with Sasuke panned out in the slightest. His idiotic actions with his little brother nearly got us all killed multiple times."

Naruto nodded in agreement. "Hears to that." He drank what was left of his ramen. "That still leaves one spot, though. Who else could we bring back? I still say Jiraiya would be a good idea, but he'd have a lot of the same to offer as Itachi."

"True." Gaara agreed. He started making different animals out of the sand still in his palm. Leaning his head on his free arm, he said, "If we truly want the upper hand, we might want to bring back another of the squad. Most everyone in a different village is out due to communication issues, but in the Leaf, we could bring back Ko or perhaps Iruka-"

"Jiraiya still." Naruto sighed, rubbing his temples.

That brought the sand user up short, before he sighed. "Naruto, we can't think too much with our hearts here."

"I know." The blonde sighed. "But the sorry bastard is owed his second chance, especially after Kabuto's second wave of undead. Jiraiya lived and died in service of Konoha, foregoing comfort, love, a real life…' Naruto's teeth were audible as they grounded together. "Even raising me."

Gaara sighed. "Perhaps you're right. There are others we could bring back, of course. Iruka, Tsunade, even the Rinnegan user you turned to your side-"

"Nagato?" Naruto injected, his eyes widening. He ran through the possibilities of bringing back the man; they could have an even better mole than Itachi in Akatsuki, one with the potential to change events…

Regardless if he had the potential to help them, getting in contact with the man would be almost impossible. If they could bring back Jiraiya as well, that would be one thing, as the toad sage could get in contact with his ex-student. But they couldn't. Also, whereas everyone else on their list would gain immensely in the skill category, Nagato would stay the same.

"Yes." Gaara continued, "But he has too many drawbacks, and coordination problems. Jiraiya is our best choice then."

"So... We're decided, then? Hinata, Kakashi, Shikamaru, Itachi, and Jiraiya?"

The kazekage nodded. "Just in time, too. I think we're out of ramen." The blonde's eyes bugged out of his head at that, and he swiveled around to look at the pot he had been using for cooking. When he saw it empty, he slumped over comically. "Dammit..." He muttered dejectedly.

Gaara chuckled. "Well what do you expect? You just ate an entire shop's worth of ramen."

"So?" Naruto asked. "I've done that here multiple times..."

"I have little doubt about that, you bottomless fucking pit." Said a voice behind them. The two turned, only to be greeted by one of their new ally, Messiah. "Come on, I already told my dad about Itachi, I knew before Gaara spoke. Right now, the guy ought to be talking to Shinigami." He held out his hands. "Grab on so we can go."

The two stared at the man, dumbstruck. "What was that about the god of death?" Naruto asked, blinking.

"Know what, I don't have the patience to explain." Messiah sighed. "You'll get it when we get there." Then he was on Naruto's side of the ramen shop's counter, grabbing both of them by the shoulders. They saw dirt and then comprehended darkness.

* * *

"So Itachi and Jiraiya, eh? Makes sense, I suppose." Scar muttered, eyes closed as Messiah left to get the two ninja. Without any more time wasted, he manipulated the magical energies in his mind, causing the runes around him to light up with a deep silver energy. As the power reached its apex of potency, he released the energy, sending a massive call out to all entities of death within a massive radius spanning multiple universes.

Around him, a pride demon, the Greek god Thanatos, and Shinigami appeared. The pride demon was easily dealt with; Scar simply pulled his snubnose from his holster and fired six shots, killing the creature. Fortunately, the fact that it had no anchor to this realm let it dissipate instead of crashing to the ground and raising a ruckus.

"My call was not meant for you." The tall man said from his sitting position, looking at Thanatos. The incarnation of death simply nodded and left. Finally, Scar acknowledged the one he had meant to call.

"You should really release the souls of Hinata Hyuga, Kakashi Hatake, Shikamaru Nara, Jiraiya of the Sannin, and Itachi Uchiha to me. I'm responsible, and I'll rip you in half if you don't." Scar said nonchalantly. He was rather impressed with the god, who had not even flinched despite the insult. Usually, those types were the most egotistical.

"So," Scar continued, "Your name Ichigo, by any chance?" The massive floating entity continued its silence. "Nah, guess not. Too ironic if it were. So, about those souls-"

A voice that seemed to embody death and cold spoke slowly from the god's form, as if emanating from its entire body instead of its mouth. _"Why do you require these souls, Souless One?"_

The tall man frowned, sending out massive amounts of killing intent. "No, you don't call me that. Scar or Jack Knife, I don't care which. Souless One? No. You have to earn that right."

The god stared back impassively. _"Then tell me Jack Knife, why do you want these souls?"_

"I plan of fixing this world, making sure those idiots Uchiha one and two don't fuck up things up." The now named Jack Knife responded.

The death god remained impassive, but now he seemed to emanate a colder air. _"You dare think to meddle in my rea-"_

"-lm?" Scar finished for the death god. "Yep. Skip the posturing, either you have some reason for actually wanting this, maybe getting in trouble with other gods for gaining so much power through the recent surge of souls, maybe you actually deal with real paperwork from Hell, whatever. If not, then I force you. Come on; give me the souls I'm asking for."

The death god was silent for a moment, more than likely contemplating whether or not doing some damage in a fight was worth the inevitable ass whooping, when he seemed to shimmer in a way Scar interpreted as a thoughtful frown. "_Who are you sending to correct this place?" _The floating shinigami asked.

"Naruto Uzumaki, Gaara of the Desert, and those five I mentioned before." Scar said. "The first two because they are alive, the last five out of the kindness of my heart."

The Shinigami was silent again, this time for a full four minutes, before he said, "Bring them from the ruins. I wish to speak with them, determine their worth."

The tall newcomer to the universe nodded. "Alright Mes, you heard him." At his command, Messiah walked from behind a nearby ruined building, the two stunned mortals behind him. They walked to the edge of the circle, where the blond immortal stopped them.

"Don't go in too far." He muttered. "He seems like he won't cross us, but you never know."

The two heeded his words and looked towards the death god, awe and fear in their eyes.

"_I am death, mortals-_" The death god began, before his avatar shimmered and let out a sound like nails on a chalkboard. The runes turned slightly purple before returning to their normal blue. The god promptly looked toward Scar, seeming to be trying to make his emotionless face glare. "_Why do you test me, Blade_?" It asked.

The man just glared back. "Don't try to scare them, ask your questions, say your piece, and then give us the souls."

The death god was silent for a moment, before it said, "_You shall receive no favors from me_."

"Is that you final answer?" Scar asked, his glare not leaving. The death god said nothing, and the scarred man clicked his tongue in disappointment. "Suit yourself, see you soon." The death god then disappeared, and the runes that had summoned him evaporated.

Scar stood, dusted off his pants, and smiled brightly at the two terrified and stunned mortals. "Well boys, you ever been to Hell?"

* * *

"Say it again, slowly." Naruto told Scar, Gaara sitting next to him and Messiah nearby, drawing symbols on a rock.

"We'll be going to hell to get the souls of your friends and possibly kick Shinigami's ass before going to the past so you can fix this clusterfuck you call a world." The scarred man reiterated, saying it slowly as instructed.

The blond sitting across from him ran a hand through his hair. "You've got to be fucking kidding me." He muttered.

"No, I'm not." Scar said. "Why the hell are you worried? You'll be fine as long as you stay near us, and even if we get separate, the fox is enough of an entity to keep anything you'll find in hell off of you, sans the god I just pissed off."

"Why, again, did you piss off that god?" Gaara asked before his fellow kage could attempt to kill the strange man across from them.

Said man rolled his eyes. "Like I said, he did shit I don't like. Something that has always annoyed me is when gods treat humans like they don't feel, like they are unnecessary, when gods, especially death gods who get their power from dead souls, forget how important mortals are. He was trying to frighten you for no other reason than it amused him, or it appealed to his vanity, or both. Whatever it was, it warranted the slap on the wrist I gave him."

Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose. "If it was just a slap on the wrist, then why did he get so pissed?"

Scar shrugged. "Like I said, he was probably trying to appeal to his vanity by frightening you two. Being shown to be under my power as he was probably embarrassed him like a pimple does a prom queen."

"And why are we coming," the blond questioned, "when we are clearly not gods and we are clearly terrified of the Shinigami?"

"Because it'll be difficult for me to recognize the souls of the long dead, Itachi, Jiraiya, Shikamaru. They've been sleeping for a while now, worriless and at peace. Their essences, their signatures, the things that make them discernible as them, have become weak, like a candle on the last bit of its wick. You knew them in life; you'll know them in death." The tall man responded.

"What if we run into the death god?" Naruto questioned. "And before you say the fox, he isn't in any state to do jack shit against a god."

This gave Scar pause. "What does that mean?" He asked.

The blond seemed to struggle to find an explanation. Finally, the redhead next to him said, "The fox's consciousness has been eliminated. Its power is still behind the seal, and Naruto can call on it, but oddly enough it's harder for him to control now."

Scar looked at Naruto, who nodded and looked to his friend thankfully. He looked back at the stranger now offering to bring him to hell. "It isn't easy for me to talk about. That was one of the most scarring memories of my life... I remember the fox's screams. They were so damn animalistic, primal in their pain."

The man raised an eyebrow. "What happened exactly?"

"It was..." Naruto sighed, then continued. "My eighteenth birthday. After Bee had been sealed- wait, you know who Bee is?" At Scar's nod, the blond continued. "After he was captured and the Allied Forces were decimated after the first few years of conflict, the eight-tails was sealed and added to the Juubi's strength to make it that much closer to being reformable. The Konoha council had elected me Hokage a few years back after Tsunade died, along with all the kage except Gaara."

"What happened, exactly?" Scar questioned, despite having an idea of the plan.

"After Bee was captured, Gaara and I the only living Kage and Konoha the last standing village with Fire country under siege, we were desperate. So Shikamaru came up with a final gamble. He trapped the shit out of a thirty mile radius and had our best and brightest wait in the center for Madara, Obito, and those damn Zetsu."

The blonde's new ally apparent raised an eyebrow in surprise. "That sounds… Really low-tech for him."

Naruto grinned in an almost feral manner. "Yeah, you'd think that? But no. He combed the entire killzone and had each trap placed for maximum effect. I made each of those traps myself too, using my best devious nature. Not a single Zetsu made it through the first twenty, and by that point Madara just blasted things out of his way. He used up some energy, if only some."

"Hm." Scar said dubiously. "Still not what I expected."

The smile still hadn't left Naruto's face. "Then every ninja left who could fight on the level of a jonin was at the center, waiting as a distraction. Shikamaru led them and I left behind about a thousand shadow clones to make it seem like I was fighting there. Meanwhile a strike team, led by myself and consisting of the Konoha Eleven and Gaara, led an assault against the last known location of Kabuto Yakushi and the power source of the remains of the Zetsu army. Our goal was to inject that with a poison that would separate the molecules in the Zetsu power source, which would let us destroy what remained of the Uchiha's main fighting force."

"Diversion. Not bad. Who made the poison?" The tall immortal inquired.

"Sakura and Shizune, along with a few other notable medical ninja and Suna's Puppet Research Department, led the creation team. Took them two years, only Sakura and a handful of survivors made it out when the base of operations was attacked." The blonde took a breath before continuing, his eyes staring past Scar, into somewhere far away.

"We lost Choji on the way there. When we got to the center, we found Anko Mitarashi and Yamato bound to the wall, near some…. _Thing_, some abomination that looked like the first hokage. Yamato and Anko were barely alive, so we gave them a mercy killing and injected the poison. The effects were almost immediate. The Zetsu remaining in the tunnel deteriorated before our eyes. Kabuto had been fighting too, but we managed to kill him without the help of the Zetsu clones."

"Then… We got to the battlefield." Tears welled up in the corner of the blond's eyes, but they did not fall. "Where Shikamaru had been holding out. When the Zetsu fell, Shikamaru held off Madara and Obito singlehandedly long enough for what remained of the Allied Shinobi Forces to retreat. We found him… His arms, legs had been cut off. His chest had been cut up, looked like a razor blade. He had been castrated and then healed enough so none of this was fatal. And they left him there to suffer."

Scar had seen as bad before, but he still felt pity for the blonde. "You ended it, then?"

"Yeah." Naruto sighed. His face hardened. "Then Madara and Obito attacked us again from the shadows. They did their best to kill us all. That's where Sakura died. In the end, I ordered the retreat and held them off. I thought I'd go out like Shika for some stupid fucking reason. Instead they beat me within an inch of my life, sealed my chakra, and began extracting the Kyubi."

"The fox and I had a long talk on the way there, and he made me aware of something in the seal… A failsafe. It would eviscerate his mind and send three tails of chakra scattered across the elemental nations. He wouldn't have a chance of reforming until I died and released the rest of his power, and then it would take centuries more for that to happen."

Scar was silent for a moment before he said, "I'm rather surprised something of that nature was included in the seal, it seems a bit out of character for your father to think so pragmatically."

"He knew what we were facing, he had to have a final option for if I got captured. So, we went through it, and afterwards I escaped back to the village half-dead. Then things really descended into chaos, but I'll explain that later."

"Alright." The tall immortal muttered to himself. "That's… There's definitely more than one divergence point here, a point that made things make sense. Huh…"

"What're you muttering about?" Gaara asked in an annoyed manner. "Sounds fairly insane, and trust me, I know insane."

Scar snorted. "Not my brand. But nothing. If you wouldn't mind kid, I'd like to see the seal."

"And I'd rather not show you." The blond shot back.

"Take off your damn shirt." The tall man said, standing from his cross-legged position.

Naruto sighed and stood himself. "Knew that would be how you'd phrase it." He muttered, removing his flak jacket and black tee-shirt. He channeled chakra into his stomach, allowing the seal to show.

"Damn." The scarred man muttered, noticing how radically different the seal was from what he had seen otherwise. "A lot of this is missing. Most of it-"

"Was for containing consciousness, yeah." The whiskered boy cut in. "They just faded after the fox's mind was gone. Those parts weren't necessary, I suppose."

Scar looked at the seal for a few more minutes before he asked, "Mind if I check on the inside? I'd have a better idea of what we're dealing with then."

The blond shrugged. "Sure, if you can get a look at the inside of the seal. Just be careful when you do."

The tall man nodded and placed an open palm against the shiki fujin.

* * *

Scar looked around the sewer, channeling a small amount of energy around the portion of his legs below water to keep them dry. _'These are expensive pants.' _He mentally grumbled, starting in the direction he felt energy in. Once he arrived near the cage he had seen many times behind book covers and on a television screen, he used one of his many modes of probing to check for mental signatures to see exactly what awaited him on the other side.

It was a unique method, the one he was using, he thought as a black aura spread from his person across the water. He slowly passed through the bars with the energy, probing around as the scent of burning ozone spread through the small area. The man detected one aura, surprisingly another black one that smelled of woodland creatures, which he assigned to Naruto. He detected a third energy signature, but it seemed empty. It had not scent or color, not white or black, but simply colorless, meaning for some serious problems.

Assured that he wouldn't have to deal with any unpleasantness, he crossed through the massive bars, taking note of the decayed paper on the bars, saying in faded ink the kanji for 'seal'. When he crossed the barrier, he was greeted by a sickening sight, and by that he did not mean the blond standing near the massive fox corpse-esque thing.

"Holy hell." Scar muttered, staring disgustedly at the body of Kurama, better known as the Kyubi no Yoko. The scarred man probed the mind using a different method learned from a man named Brom, and was sickened by his findings. There was absolutely no mental energy behind the massive power of the fox. Not only that, but there was far less power behind the fox than there should have been, even without the yin half.

"Yeah." Naruto agreed sullenly, looking at the body himself, obviously filled with massive remorse.

"You really shouldn't have let them capture you." The tall man told the blond. Said blond leveled a glare at him in response.

"Really did try hard to avoid it, jackass." He hissed.

"Yeah, yeah." Scar responded. "Come on, let's get out of here, it's not phasing to look at but that doesn't mean it's enjoyable either."

* * *

Back in the real world Scar removed his hand from Naruto's stomach and looked over to Messiah. "You done?" He asked his fellow.

"Just about." The man's son answered. "Hey, explain to them some of the shit they can expect. You know, demons and tricks of the mind. Don't want any surprises to terrible so that they die."

The heavily scarred man nodded. "Yeah, suppose I should. Guess that's why you're taking so long with the damn seal." He turned to the now-dressed Naruto and Gaara. "I should explain to you how this will work."

"That would be nice." Gaara responded with undertones of sarcasm.

"Which is why I'm doing it, asshole." Scar shot back. "Anyways," he continued, "here's what we'll be doing. We're all going to jump into the portal and land in different points; we'll divide and conquer. Gaara will go in with Mes, Naruto, you're with me. We'll be trying to find the souls of the dearly departed, if you two recognize one of them, just let us know. Also, the Shinigami has control of all the spirits of the dead, so he will likely send the souls of your friends at us in an attempt to slow us down in addition to demons and souls you won't recognize."

"That sounds like a bitc- wait what?" Naruto asked as he realized what he had just been told.

Scar sighed. "They always take this the hardest. Likelihood is that we'll encounter the souls of your friends and teachers, like the sannin, dead Kage, and others, so the Shinigami can fuck with your heads and slow me and Mes down. Unfortunately, he'll probably hold some of the souls we're looking for near him, so Messiah and I will have to fight tall, dark, and ugly if this ends up being the case. Not an issue."

"I can open it any second now." Messiah threw from over his shoulder, hand on the seal.

"Good." He turned back to the stunned blond and redhead. "Well, come on kids. Time for a field trip. Oh, and you're also likely to experience you worst memories." Then he pulled a large knife out of his chest, likely from a seal painted on there, its handle black-metal covered in rubber and its blade gleaming brightly. "Hey, use this, by the way. Silver hurts the undead more. Shouldn't have too many problems with it, it's kind like a kunai knife." He threw it to Naruto, who caught it in his right hand. "Called a bowie knife in the place it originated, this variation used by a group called the Navy SEALS. Real heroes, they do the shit you guys do without the chakra. Gaara, Messiah will take care of your sand."

He then turned around. "Open it." The tall man told his child. Messiah nodded and bit his thumb, smearing blood across the characters he had painted on the rock. The portal became a circle of blinding light, standing out on the otherwise ordinary granite. The seal master grabbed the stunned kazekage and jumped in, dragging the redhead with him.

"Well, let's go to hell my new friend." Scar told the blond next to him, grabbing him and dragging him through the portal in a similar way to Gaara, off to mystical adventures in a dark land, on a quest to retrieve the lost souls of the innocent dead and turn back time to right the wrongs of ner'do-wells and insufferable bastards.

Or die horribly in the case of the two mortals. One of those. Hopefully the heroic one.

* * *

**Quick info**

**This ends the first of four sections of this story. The second half of the sections are obviously going to follow a "Part One and Part Two" structure, while the group's adventures in the underworld will be the next. No, they will not all be the same length, hell, they'll likely increase as time goes on. And before anyone claims spoilers, I basically just told you Voldemort killed Harry's parents. Not really a spoiler. Onto answering questions:**

**All Comments on Gaara's New Catchphrase for General WTF Situations: That was going to be a one-time thing. Now it'll stick around forever.**

**TL: I have similar feelings; my options for this story in regards to Naruto's romance was no romance, an older woman which I'm against, and a time-travel companion. I decided on Hinata because I'm a fan and it's ALMOST canon. As for bringing back one person from each village, I thought of that. Unfortunately, due to the current scenario he will not get in contact with him before they start making changes. Also, who does he have in Iwa and Kiri that have both the clout to make changes, and the respect for him to follow his lead? That's why he instead picked people he could easily contact, yet have the mobility and clout to start effecting other villages.**

**Kingswriter: Don't resist, that way I can get the joke.**

**Moon Wolf 96: All in good time. At least I can promise this; not canon.**

**DarthElendil: Yeah, that's the plan. As much as I love Third Fang's work, I don't want to rehash it. Also, whereas he was using a teenage Naruto, I'm using a war-veteran Naruto with years of combat and leadership experience plus fairly insane skills. My blond's hand doesn't need to be held as much.**

**Oh, and for future reference, I'll be taking some artistic liberties with Shinto considering it's already in a fictional universe. Please nobody get offended!**

**Review you wonderful wonderful people! Sure this chapter wasn't my best, but considering it's largely exposition I got it to flow pretty well. Please review? Please? Literally, I live for reviews, regardless of their content. They let me know you read the story instead of just checking it out and then leaving it alone. Favorites are awesome too!**

**... I'm beginning to realize that my need for reviews speak poorly of my self-esteem. Perhaps I should work on that.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Let's All Go to Hell!

* * *

The transportation was instantaneous for Naruto, going from seeing bright sunlight to seeing dark stone. Like any good shinobi, he took in his surroundings, assessing all the different factors of his new environment as quickly as he could.

He was now in a massive dark tunnel, the ceiling of the cavern arching higher above him than even the Hokage monument ever reached. The entire cave was made of pure obsidian, radiating freezing cold, accentuated by the heavy, icy wind that was blowing soundlessly through.

Naruto felt… Wrong here. It felt wrong to his very core that he was in this place. Every survival instinct he had been forced to cultivate over the course of his life screamed at him to turn backwards from the direction he was facing, to run and not stop running until his heart gave out, until he felt sunlight on his skin again, until he was breathing air not heavy with death.

Yet deep inside, part of him wanted to continue onwards, and not simply because of his objective in coming here in the first place. Part of his spirit urged him to embrace death, to sleep…

"Going to the underworld is always an unsettling experience for mortals, at least if it's their first time and they have something to fear." Scar said from next to him, a silver naginata in his hands.

"Why do I feel like I want to go to hell?" The Uzumaki asked quietly, staring in the direction of their objective with glassy eyes.

The scarred man sighed. "What you're asking is why do you want to die, and that's a long answer involving a lot of philosophy and psychology you don't have the prior knowledge to understand."

That seemed to break the blond man out of his stupor. "I don't want to die." He answered without a beat missed.

"No, you just want to die significantly less than others." Scar answered. "Throughout my travels, I've found that humans naturally want to die, although it is strange how you can tell who wants to die more or less than others."

Naruto frowned. "Assuming I agree with that load of bullcrap, what's strange about it? The guys who put themselves in suicidal situations and cut their own wrist want to die, the ones that are happy and cautious want to avoid death."

"You'd be surprised." The taller of the two shot back. "Those that seek out those dangerous situations, seek out power, seek those things out because they want something meaningful and exciting, they actually want to die less. They want to experience life, all its fun and excitement. They want to do something that they perceive matters, and therefore value their lives. Those that are cautious, those that serve as waitresses, seek out safe jobs, simply contend with themselves and pleasure, they want to die more. They lack the drive to act, and without acting, life becomes monotony. Just another boring thing that needs ending." Scar shrugged. "At least, that's what I've observed."

Naruto was silent for a minute before sighing. "You know what? Whatever. We have more important things to do right now than talk philosophy."

"Don't forget the psychology." The scarred man interjected.

Naruto threw him a dried, deadpan look. The tall man wisely started walking down the tunnel.

* * *

Gaara looked around as he regained his senses, realizing that while he no longer stood in Suna, he was still in a desert. The difference was this desert was somehow hotter and dryer. The sky was a bloody red, black clouds that would never rain obscuring parts of the scarlet heights.

The sand itself was pure white, black rocks jutting out intermittently reaching towards the sky. This sand was… Different. Gaara knew he would still be able to control it, but it would rebel against his will. It was as if he wasn't meant to control it, which he probably wasn't.

"Yo, kid. I need to deal with your sand." Messiah said from next to him, throwing his neck to one side and cracking it.

"Deal with it?" Gaara echoed, curious as to exactly what that meant.

"That shit needs to be given some properties of silver. I can do that while still leaving you able to control it, just needs some of your energy." The tall blonde responded. Without waiting another beat, he placed his hand against the Kazekage's gourd.

Instantly Gaara felt a change overcome his reliable and constant weapon. He quickly summoned a small bit of sand to his right palm, swirling it in his hand and examining the substance, trying to ascertain any changes in his weapon.

As far as he could tell, it was the same. Still the same yellowish tint, still grains, nothing noticeable different. Then his eye caught it; the individual particles were glinting in the light of the red sky. They shined like he remembered some of Temari's jewelry glinting, like silver.

"What exactly did you do?" Gaara asked.

"You understand the ideas of atoms, sub-atomic particles, and alchemical transmutation?" The blond shot back his own question, needing to know before he could answer.

At the redhead's blank stare, Messiah sighed. "No? You won't understand anything I tell you without that knowledge, so it's a moot point. Just know demons won't like your sand from now on." He then started walking in a seemingly random direction.

Gaara grabbed his shoulder, vaguely noting how much denser the muscle there felt than even on giants like Killer A. "Wait, where are we?"

"One of the three entrances to your underworld." Messiah responded, shrugging off the hand. "This one seems to be the dangerous one that leads to the world of sinners. Then there's the one made by Izanagi, who appears to actually be a mortal in your world, to try to rescue his wife, that'll be our exit. The last one is the main entrance the undead enter through, that's where Naruto and my father are."

Gaara paused for a second. "… The dangerous one?"

"Try controlling some of this sand." The blond gave as an answer.

Despite feeling some frustration, the Kazekage did as he was told, attempting to cause a small amount of sand to rise above his head. Like he'd felt earlier, the sand reluctantly responded to his will, his element lifting in a lump about the size of his head.

What happened next he didn't expect, but he supposed if a butterfly flapping its wings in Konoha could cause a dust storm in Suna, then the consequences of his actions were perfectly understandable.

A massive horned creature, man-shaped but with four arms, several extra pairs of eyes, and skin bright red appeared from the ground, disturbed by Gaara's manipulation. It let out a massive roar, swinging it's club and beginning to charge at the stunned redhead.

Then its head was gone, blood and gore flying in several directions as a result of Messiah's strong, overhanded blow, his gilded hammer being covered in ruby-red blood.

"And that is why it's dangerous. We're likely to start getting seriously attacked now by all manner of demons, much stronger than that oni." The hammer wielder said. He threw his neck to one side, cracking it hard.

"Wait, what in the name of Shukaku's Dusty Nads is this place?" Gaara demanded, sand from his gourd beginning to swirl around him in preparation for combat.

"This is the realm where the evil souls are sent, to be punished by the most sadistic being in your universe. You might have heard of him, his name is Jashin." Mes explained quickly.

Gaara paled dramatically, remembering reports he had heard of the Akatsuki member Hidan.

"Be ready." Messiah ordered.

Then all hell literally broke loose.

* * *

Naruto looked around the tunnel. It had taken a few minutes for him to begin to notice, but he was beginning to see the many dots of light that were souls going to the underworld, awaiting eternal rest. Some of them felt strong and light, others heavy and with weight. The lighter ones were glowing a dim white and moved forward quickly, while the heavy ones glowed an agitated red and shone brightly, going forward in inches every few seconds.

"Are these souls?" Naruto asked, looking astounded at what he was seeing.

"Yes." Scar responded, allowing the souls to agglomerate around him.

"Why are they different colors?" Naruto asked, his curiosity as a student piqued for the first time in years. "And why are they circling around you?

The taller man began tapping a tune out on his thigh, using his naginata as a staff. "To answer your first question, from what I can glean, the dim ones are souls who accept it is their time. They're already accepting peace. The brighter red ones are the dead who desire to rebel, who don't wish for death."

"As much as that sounds like a good and evil thing, it isn't, is it?" The blond interrupted, looking over the souls. He reached out and touched one of the red ones, and in an instant feelings rushed over him; feelings of love, affection, desperation, a need to survive and protect.

* * *

'_Ayaka… Need to protect Ayaka.' I thought, hefting my sword. It was an old katana I'd bought from that merchant in Tanzuka Gai. It was a weapon of decent make; I hoped it would be enough._

_One of the bandits ran at me, his sword over his head; he expected me to stay paused, I was shaking. Instead I stuck out my sword, and it went through his neck. Blood spurted over me, and I heard Ayaka scream as some of it splattered on her. _

_I pulled the weapon out, and the other two looked at me in surprise. They didn't think I would move either. The sick smiles they'd been wearing gave way to angry snarls. I held the sword steady again, the death of the first one filling me with confidence._

_The one with knife lunged forward, using a hook slash. I held my sword up; I'd meant for it to block his knife, but I held it too far forward and instead it cut into his wrist, his own momentum severing the limb. I was stunned for a second, but then I brought down the blade and ended the life of the second bandit._

_I felt accomplished for a minute, and that was bad. It let the last bandit catch me unaware. He shattered my right shoulder with an overhead smash from his mace. I screamed, and then he smashed me in the chest, shattering my ribs. I stumbled back and fell, coughing up blood._

_He walked over me, stomping on my chest out of sadistic spite. Ayaka screamed louder. I turned over and saw him descend on her, beginning to tear away at her clothing. My girl. That bastard was trying to rape her; I felt rage build inside me. Blade in my left hand, I began dragging myself forward._

_The bastard was fumbling with his pants, grunting like a hungry beast. I tried to raise my blade in a stabbing motion; just a few more feet._

_My vision swam… NO! I had to save her… No…no…ah…N…o…_

* * *

Naruto came back to his senses, blinking, shaking, a cold layer of sweat covering his skin. _'Who am I again? I am… Masao… No, no. I'm Naruto Uzumaki._

"How'd it die?" Scar asked.

"I… He… Masao, he was defending his girlfriend… Ayaka. We, no, they, they were trying to get to a new village being started in what used to be Kumo. News of Obito and his armies dying is already spreading; people are starting to regain hope. They think my guys are all dead too, ninja are finally gone."

Naruto wanted to scream at that; even Masao, who had been under attack by bandits, bandits that had once been nearly a non-issue thanks to shinobi, had hated and feared ninja. He couldn't really blame them; the actions of ninja had caused too many lives to be snuffed out.

Still, without ninjas, it would be some time before the elemental nations had their original safety. They would likely form militias, and settlements would serve as beacons of civilization, but how long would it take for one of those city-states to create a leader able to unite those settlements into a country, an empire that could restore order similar to the golden days of the ninja villages?

"Too long." Scar answered.

Naruto turned his head sharply to look at his tall companion. "How did you-"

"I'm a wizard." The scarred man answered dryly. "Anyways, now you know not to touch them. And you were right, as you saw; it isn't a matter of morality. It's a matter whether or not that person can be at peace with their death." He reached out and touched the same soul Naruto had. A second later he pulled back his hand.

"I see. He didn't know if his girlfriend was safe. His will to protect her is keeping him; I think he ought to stop fighting it. My eyes were clearer than yours, she was reaching for the blade, he had dropped it where she could get it." He told his blonde companion.

Naruto felt an unexplainable amount of relief. "Oh." He noticed the scroll grow a little dimmer, it's color changing to something resembling purple. His mouth opening in surprise, he asked, "Did it hear us?"

"No, I told Masao when I was in there." Scar responded, as if he was telling Naruto the current weather.

Naturally, Naruto was as close to speechless as he ever got. "H-how did you-" he began to ask.

"Talk to the dead?" The well-dressed man finished. "I'm skilled in the wizarding school of Necromancy."

The younger man's eyes hardened. "Stop giving me BS answers." He said, barely avoiding the tone he used in combat when ordering other ninjas; it was a tone that brooked no argument, and he worried his strange new 'ally' would take offense.

Scar gave a sigh. "I really don't any personal issue with telling you, you just wouldn't understand. Even if you did, it would take way longer than I had patience to explain fully. I might tell you one day, but like I said, you have to impress me before I can do that."

Barely containing a growl from pitching out of his throat, a habit Naruto blamed whole-heartedly on the influence of the fox, he sighed. "Alright, fine. Then answer my second question; why're they on you like a Nara on a couch?"

"I am the biggest energy source in a mile radius." Scar responded, smirking slightly. "Plus, I've been told my energy taste like cookies. Now come on, we have to go meet the judge of the undead; the perils of entering this little necropolis from the front."

* * *

Gaara cursed for what had to be the millionth time. Messiah had been more than accurate when he had said that there would be many types of demons to fight besides the damn Oni. He had run into more Oni of course, some bigger or smaller, monkey like Hihi demons, the flying, fire-breathing Itsumade, and even Kappa. Water spirits. In a fucking desert.

Barely dodging the attack of yet another damned Tanuki-

"Oh the irony!" Messiah shouted, bringing down his hammer on yet another unfortunate demon.

'_I'd tell him to go to hell-' _Gaara began to think, but was cut off. His train of thought was verbally cut off.

"I was there the second I had to put up with your stoic ass!" The hammer-wielder responded.

The kazekage grounded his teeth together hard. The blond had revealed during combat he could somehow access Gaara's thoughts, and he hadn't let the redhead forget it. It was… Annoying.

"You'll grow to love me." The blond called gleefully, rending a Kappa in two by smashing everything that made up its torso, crotch, and head.

Letting out a furious scream, Gaara expelled his sand around him, placing small grains around the heads of all the nearby demons. With a close of his hand, the grains went into the brains of his enemies, turning like a blender. All the demons fell down, as close to dead as the thrice-damned things ever got.

Breathing heavily, the redhead looked over at the cause of his aggravation. Said cause was smoking a cigarette, leaning on his hammer.

A beat.

"Why the cigarette?" Gaara finally asked, breaking down.

Messiah took a deep drag of the cancer stick. "Some people smoke after sex to unwind, because while pleasurable, it is an intense experience that gets the blood flowing." Another long drag. "That is why I am smoking now."

Repressing some of the strongest murderous urges since his youth, Gaara pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine. Why aren't we being attacked right now then?"

Starting to blow smoke rings, Messiah shrugged. "Pretty sure Jashin is coming. No big deal, I can't expect you to fight a god. I'll take care of him."

Gaara flashed through pale to not to pale again. No way, now way this guy would do it for him. There was a catch, he would definitely have to fight something ridiculous.

"Of course, he's bringing some of his best servants, including the guy who killed Asuma Sarutobi. You should probably be ready."

'_I'm beginning to hate being right.' _The now doomed-feeling redhead thought, coming as close as he ever got to comically crying.

* * *

Naruto stared at the massive room that had been at the end of the tunnel, its ceilings vaulted and the only light being from candelabras arranged around the place. It was a magnificent place, covered in colored glasses, the floors and walls made of the darkest obsidian. The floor felt warm, but the room felt cold.

There were six rows of pews, each of them containing a row of men in pure white robes. They were chanting a prayer.

"_We pray for forgiveness for those that have sinned, we pray for praise to those that are holy. The Warrior, the Innocent, the Demon, the Angel, a warning… A warning to the people… The good and the evil… This is your end… We pray you face the end with dignity… We pray for you to face the end with solitude… We pray for ascendance for all… And expect it for some…_

They kept chanting in a hymn that seemed far from its end. Naruto felt goosebumps roll up and down his body; his stomach churned his legs felt like jelly. Spirits were proceeding down the aisle, and at the end of that aisle was a massive curtain, blood red in color. There was a presence behind it the blond could feel… That he could fear… That he could _desire…_

"Ah." Scar said in a much more jovial manner than anyone had a right to while in the middle of hell. "A Western influence. Nice. Well made. No idea where the hell it came from; then again, considering the second movie, Kishimoto isn't immune to taking from the West a bit. Not that he wrote this, but in his imagination… Or maybe this is just a variation across universes-"

"Okay, no." Naruto interrupted. "Stop taking hell so casually, that is incredibly fucking frustrating, especially when I'm about to crap my pants."

Scar paused for a second before nodding. "Granted." He began walking forward.

"Maybe we should avoid the massive, scary-looking curtain there." Naruto suggested, gesturing towards the massive curtain that was rather scary.

"Then how do we get into hell?" Scar asked curiously. "You have another idea, I'm all ears."

Looking like he was sucking on a lemon, the Hokage nodded. "Alright, fine, but if anything kills me, please get my soul back and do that same shit you're doing with everyone else to me."

"Sure kid." The immortal promised condescendingly.

"You do realize I'm twenty-three, right?" The blond man asked. "You could treat me like an adult."

"That's cute." The taller of the two stated. He reached the curtain. "Now come on. Let's meet the judge of the dead."

Naruto's cursing was cut off by a blinding white light.

* * *

Gaara was trembling with a mixture of fear and excitement, waiting for the malevolent being he knew as Jashin. He had to admit, the insane and bloodthirsty kid in him was a little bit excited at the fight coming towards him; it didn't hurt that he remembered three different ninja of high rank from Sand, all with bounties, reported to be killed by some ritual.

"Kill your boner." Messiah said, throwing him a sideways look.

"You first." Gaara shot back.

That got the blond as close as he got to surprise these days. "When did you stop treating me with the caution due to someone that can obviously kill you?"

"When you annoyed the hell out of me by finishing my thoughts our loud during combat." Gaara deadpanned. "Are they almost here?"

With a chuckle, the hammer wielder said, "Yeah. Give it about three… Two… One."

With that, a massive creature erupted from the sand, horrifying in its visage. It was largely a spine, each segment having a pair of bone arms sprouting from it. The bones and spine were colored a bloody red, drops falling off. At the top of the spine was an evil face, a skull that may have once been human but was now twisted to look like some strange mix of a human, shark, and crow.

On top of that head stood a figure that must have been nearly nine feet in height. It was wearing a cloak of the darkest midnight that obscured its visage, though his hands looked incredibly pale. At its side it hefted a massive scythe, similar to the one reported to have been carried by Hidan, though this model was noticeably longer and had five blades instead of three.

Also, hanging off the arms as if they were tree branches, three figures stood. Each were cloaked in a similar way as the creature atop the bone monster, though they all had different tools. Hidan was easily identifiable by his large scythe, but the other two…

One held a battle fan, while the other an oblong bundle.

The three on the lower rungs jumped off and began running towards Gaara. Messiah turned his head slightly. "You'll have to take on those three. Probably figured this out already, but abuse the environment like it's a cheap hooker at an S&M club. Avoid letting Hidan touch you; he may not be alive but you are, so don't let him get your blood."

Then the immortal twitched his finger, causing a stone platform under him to shoot from ground, propelling him forward. When the rock was about two dozen meters from the spine construct, he jumped forward and smashed hit hammer straight at the point where two vertebrae connected; the rock then struck that same point, separating the vertebrae and sending the creature to the ground.

The cloaked figure appeared on the ground facing Messiah, who stared back with a bored expression. "Hm." The blond hummed. "If I had to guess… You aren't actually a god. Just a really strong demon, about the power of a God Class E-Rank. How boring."

The apparent youth disappeared and reappeared behind the creature, swinging his hammer faster than even Gaara's trained eye could follow, faster than he felt even a Sharingan could follow. The weapon collided with the scythe, making a mighty clang.

"Well, let's dance Mr. Jashin." Messiah said with a smirk.

The area was suddenly overwhelmed with a killing intent; no, not a killing intent. A presence; from Gaara's blond ally not named Naruto, there came a feeling of crushing emptiness; of despair. The feeling that only came with the truest bitterness, felt in those that had examined life and found no purpose in it.

From Jashin came the feeling of sadism. While the kazekage would never have thought sadism was a feeling before, it was the only way he could describe the sensation that was suffocating him. It was horrifying; brought forth in his mind were images of torture, of abuse. The darkest fears and crimes; murder, rape, dismemberment….

"We should probably take this away; your servants and mine can't work under these conditions." Messiah said, totally unaffected by the energy and presence rolling off him and his opponent.

And then the two figures disappeared, leaving Gaara alone with his new adversaries. The one he believed to be Hidan lowered his hood, revealing that the redhead was correct in his suspicions. His face was sporting a look of the purest rage.

"How dare that bastard try to challenge the purity and greatness that is Jashin! The shit-stain should have bowed in a mix of awe and fucking horror at the very figure! I will fucking murder you, I will rend you limb from fucking limb, sacrifice you to the pure punishment of Jashin, then follow his harsh direction in the way I shall murder your shithead friend! For I am now the right arm of Jashin!" The insane man ranted.

Gaara tuned it out; it wasn't as if he lacked experience ignoring egomaniacal, somewhat rabid rants from the weakest of a group of nine.

The other two figures took his interest. There was a rough bundle forming in the pit of his stomach, like an expanding rock, as he realized who those figures must be. Yes, he recognized the bundle, the fan. Those were… They couldn't be…

"Hello, little brother." Temari and Kankuro said as they threw back their hoods.

And thus a hunger for the brutal murder of the Shinigami formed within the redhead.

* * *

Once Naruto's vision cleared, he saw a massive man-like thing that he vaguely recognized. It took a second, but his memory sparked and he remembered the being as one of the construct Pain had summoned to aid him when he revived all those he had killed in his invasion.

'_Yama, King of Hell.' _Naruto realized. But whereas the thing Pain summoned had been just a head, this was a fully grown man, in long flowing robes. The skin on his head was the same pale whitish, but his eyes were pure black instead of looking like the Rinnegan. He stood at least thirty feet tall and held a massive staff that Naruto was pretty sure would double as a mace.

'_Well shit.' _The blond thought, resigning himself to his fate.

Scar was having different thoughts. _'Alright, Christianity and by extent Judaism and Islam, Buddhism, and now Hinduism. This particular version of a celestial beaucracy bears similarities to all of them, and that makes it incredibly unpredictable.'_

"Hey! Yama, good sir! I request you let us pass!" Scar shouted up at the being, which currently had souls passing through him. The souls would go down one of three tunnels; one a dark, sinister red. The one next to that was black obsidian. The farthest right was made of some white rock, limestone he supposed, and glowed a beautiful blue. Like with coming here in the first place, certain paths caused souls to slow and try to fight back.

"OY!" Naruto shouted at his well-dressed ally. "The fuck are you doing!? That thing could skullfuck me!"

"But not me." Scar whispered sideways conspiratorially, causing Naruto to sweatdrop. "Yep, would give him much more credit than a Holy Class S-Rank. A non-issue."

"**Other… Human." **A massive voice intoned, reverberating around the chamber. **"What do you desire of me?"**

"Well, good sir, you may know me as Scar, or perhaps Jack Knife. If neither of those, than know me as Souless One." Scar said jovially, odd considering his reaction to the Shinigami's use of the title earlier. "We've come here to discuss a disagreement had with the Shinigami."

There was silence for a moment, and then the being responded. **"Your reputation precedes you." **The judge said. **"I have heard whispers of your deeds, Scar. And one I have heard much about, the same reason my liege is so… Discontented. If rumors are true, while you are quite capable of doing so and surviving, any allies you have will suffer."**

"That'll be their problem, not mine. I'm just setting the wheels in motion, not driving this car." The man responded.

"Uh-" Naruto began, wanting to interject.

The taller man used his height to his advantage, literally talking down to the fully grown man when he said, "Now now, Fishcake, the adults are talking."

"I am an adult, not a fishcake." Said fishcake mumbled under his breath like a petulant child.

"**If you are done, I regret to inform you that my liege has refused to allow you to pass unchallenged." **Yama said. **"You will have to pass through me."**

"Do you mean a fight, or what?" Scar asked.

"**You must allow me to judge you, and therefore determine which realm of the dead you will pass to; only one leads to the souls you seek, and that one will be difficult to reach." **The judge answered. **"We shall test your worth, and see if you are able." **

"Ah." Scar said. He turned to his blond compatriot. "Well, you first."

Naruto eyed the King of Hell warily. "Will that kill me?" He asked warily.

"**No child." **The judgeman responded. **"It will not kill you. But as I once said, the souls you wish to reach lie behind only one of these gateways; you must be determined worthy of that, or I will be forced to not allow you to pass."**

"Well, go on kid." Scar ordered, shoving him slightly in the direction of Yama. "If this works like I hope it does, most of my questions will be answered."

Naruto glared at the immortal. "What questions?" He was shoved again as a response. "Fuck you." The blond growled.

"Yes, have fun with that." The well-dressed man responded disinterestedly.

A twitch was developing in the blond's left eye. "All of my hate…"

Suddenly the taller of the pair was reading a softcore porn novel, an eyepatch and mask suddenly covering most of his scared features. His hair also seemed jelled skyward. "You say something?"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs. "NOOOOOOOO! ESCAAAAAAPEEEEEE!" Then he jumped through the judge to be… Well, uh, judged.

* * *

**Welp, descended into crack for a second there at the end but that's another chapter out of the way. Warning, while my OCs will not have much involvement in the meat of the back in the past section, they will be fairly involved for this section. Considering exactly how strong Naruto and Gaara are in comparison to gods, I think that's understandable.**

**Also, one Hell's hierarchy; makes no sense when compared with Shinto or any Buddhist offshoots, but that can't be helped. It's largely because I have immense difficulty imagining Yama as the arrogant prick I need him to be after DBZ Abridged.**

**Also, I have gain permission of Third Fang to use his ranking system for inter-dimensional beings. On my profile if you want a reference, all credit goes to him.**

**Lastly, as combat comes up, I figure I'll give you the databook ratings of Naruto and Gaara below. There will be some slight changes, I'll detail those on my account. **


End file.
